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Allegan County MAEAP Technician Mike Ludlam was awarded the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program Technician of the Year! This is his third year winning this prestigious award. The Allegan Conservation District is fortunate to have such an outstanding tech for the past 11 years. Thank you for your dedication Mike!

We are excited to announce the ACD Allegan https://youtu.be/VfikQ79UpOoPollinator Garden is coming soon!! https://youtu.be/VfikQ79UpOo Located downtown Allegan at 448 Trowbridge St, we have BIG plans to convert the previous community vegetable garden into an urban garden featuring native plants to benefit our pollinators! Keep an eye out for updates on how you can get involved with our many upcoming volunteer opportunities, plus workshops along the way teaching how to turn your garden into a pollinator paradise! Email EmilyBrown@macd.org for more information regarding gardening volunteer sign up.

The Fennville Women's Club will be hosting this sustainability themed Fourth Friday. Come join us to enjoy street performers, make recycled art, and learn from community groups and local farms what they are doing to lead us to a more sustainable future. Come say hi to Emily at the Allegan Conservation District's booth. If you get there early she may have a surprise for you!

Your favorite store Sassy Olive is hosting the third annual Earth Day Community Cleanup in Downtown Allegan! Check in is 10am at Sassy Olive (125 Locust St, Allegan). Come downtown, pick up trash, & get some goodies donated by local businesses as a thank you for your efforts. ACD will be at the Pollinator Garden making seedballs. Together we can all make Allegan AWESOME!

We formally invite you to attend our Annual Meeting for the Fiscal Year 2021. The evening will include reporting on our progress and milestones, Board elections, and socializing with District staff! Light food and beverages will be provided. Event Date: September 14th, 2022 Event Timing: 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM Event Address: Salem Township Hall 3003 142nd Ave., Burnips, MI 49314 Please click the link below to RSVP https://forms.gle/J382mhwokCNFdyRj6

2022 is off to a great start! Thank you for your continued support! The Allegan Conservation District looks forward to continuing to help land users wisely manage the natural resources of Allegan County. Relevant Links: Annual Tree Sale Information Register for the virtual Pollution Solutions Event ACD Board and Staff Page Winter Salt Watch Blog ACD Facebook Page

Starting in December 2021, the Allegan Conservation District recruited volunteers to monitor road salt concentrations along the Kalamazoo and Rabbit Rivers. Volunteers have been collecting monthly water samples to help ACD build a baseline database to monitor changes in road salt concentrations at 14 sample sites. Monthly samples and monitoring will continue through November 2022. For more information on this project, or to sign up as a volunteer, please visit our Winter Salt Watch Program Page, or call our office at (269) 941-6165. In addition to road salt concentrations, volunteers are asked to monitor for invasive species and evidence of erosion at their assigned sample locations. This information has the potential to help the Allegan Conservation District identify areas for invasive species management and streambank stabilization. So far, volunteers have reported the presence of invasive phragmites and tatarian honeysuckle. Of the data collected so far, there have been no remarkable findings. Chloride concentrations have fluctuated from month to month between all 14 sample sites. According to the Izaak Walton League of America, chloride begins affecting freshwater aquatic life at 100 ppm (mg/L). Fortunately, volunteers have not yet recorded road salt concentrations of that level at any of the 14 Allegan County sample sites. However, we are not out of the woods yet. Road salt applied in the winter can remain present in our soils and waterways year-round. Oftentimes, spikes in road salt concentrations are recorded in the spring after snowmelt and again in fall after large rain events. These weather events "flush out" remaining road salt residue. To monitor these spikes, volunteers will continue monitoring road salt concentrations through November 2022. Please see below for a brief summary of volunteer findings thus far. As a partner of the Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA), ACD has also been uploading these results to their Salt Watch Results Page. Stay tuned as the year continues!

Allegan Conservation District is in the process of updating our contacts. The purpose of us updating our contact list is so we can promptly and effectively reach our community! We will only contact you for the following reasons: 1) To send the order forms for upcoming Tree and Native Plant Sales. 2) To send our quarterly newsletter. 3) To keep you up-to-date on any upcoming conservation projects in your area. Please respond to the contact form below to input your contact information. If you would not like to be contacted by the Allegan Conservation District in the future, please do not respond to the form.

Links to Relevant Information: Kalamazoo Phosphorus Reduction Project Great Lakes Commission Grant Volunteer for Winter Salt Watch Volunteer at Green Lake ACD Events Page Monthly Forestry Log

A Comprehensive Farmer’s Field Day When: August 26th, 8am - 2:30pm Where: Dykhuis Farms, 3759 46th St. Hamilton, MI 49419 Contact: ottawacd@macd.org or call 616-842-5852 Ext. 5 Free to all attendees. Taking place for the first time in 2019, the district and a number of partners hosted a farm field day on Smallegan Farms in Hudsonville. The event, focused on agricultural education, with noted national and Michigan industry experts sharing their knowledge with over 130 local farmers and conservation and agribusiness professionals. Fred Yoder, a climate-smart agriculture advocate, shared his experiences with cover crops on his own farm, breaking down the economics of the practice. Christina Curell, a soil health expert with Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) demonstrated how different practices such as no-till agriculture and cover crops can affect soil structure. Jerry Grigar with the Natural Resources Conservation Service shared his experience with implementing no-till agriculture on his own farm. Joe Scrimger, a retired soil consultant, taught farmers how to read their soils by what weeds are growing in their fields. This year’s field day will showcase new and emerging practices that promote soil health, give producers practical conservation knowledge that they can use to evaluate their operations, and bring new knowledge to West Michigan. On-site demonstrations will showcase cover crops and how they respond to West Michigan’s microclimate, different termination options for cover crops, and early season interseeding of cover crops into 30” or 60” rows of corn. Additionally, attendees will hear presentations such as how to balance economic and environmental decision-making, research on “planting green,” and a multitude of conservation programs available to landowners. As agriculture in West Michigan faces continued challenges – from extreme rainfall to groundwater shortages – cultivating resilience in our agricultural community is essential.