SMITHVILLE, Ohio – The late Wayne Carmony lived by the motto “be kind to the soil”. His son, Wayne Carmony Jr. though that “you should leave the soil in better shape than you found it.”
As a result the duo passed on a legacy to their son and grandson, Stan Carmony, on the importance of conserving natural resources.
Carmony and his wife, Karen, were selected as the recipient of the 2002 Wayne Soil and Water Conservation District Conservation Farm award during the Wayne SWCD’s annual meeting at the Wayne County Schools Career Center.
Carmony’s grandfather laid the groundwork for the award by implementing one of the district’s first conservation plans.
Today, Stan and Karen operate a 400-cow dairy and farm 1,300 acres of corn, alfalfa, wheat and soybeans. They have implemented conservation practices such as strip cropping, no-till and conservation tillage, waterways and concrete outlets, water and sediment control basins, livestock waste handling facilities and a manure nutrient management plan.
First time. This year the district selected Steeplechase Subdivision as the recipient of the first Excellence in Sediment and Erosion Control award.
The developer of this project is Chesterland Estates and the contractor is Snyder Excavating Inc.
During the project, areas of disturbance are kept to a minimum and stabilized continuously to minimize the possibility of erosion. They also adapted a pond to serve as a filtering system for sediment.
Teacher recognition. The district also recognized two individuals with the Conservation Teacher of the Year award.
Angela Deiotte from Burbank Elementary was named as the Elementary Conservation of the Year.
As a third and fourth grade science teacher, Deiotte has worked on creating an outdoor land lab, involved students in planting wildlife habitat, maintaining school flower beds, a playground clean-up program and promoting a community can recycling drive.
Dale Sidle, agri-science teacher at Triway High School was selected as the Secondary Educator of the Year.
He has promoted natural resource conservation and stewardship in his classroom via a variety of activities. His classes have created a bluebird trail, planted wildflowers, taken part in land judging contests and constructed conservation farm models.
They have also packaged trees for the district’s annual tree sales, and constructed wooden boxes to house soil profiles.
Re-election. Fred Myers was re-elected to the board of supervisors for the SWCD. Myers and his family reside in Sugar Creek Township where they operate a 1,100-acre grain and livestock farm.
They raise corn, beans and hay, and maintain a flock of 300 ewes.
Conservation practices include strip cropping, grass waterways, spring development and a livestock waste facility with a gravity load system.
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