Phillips County Local Work Group meeting recap

The Phillips Conservation District and the Malta NRCS hosted the Phillips County Annual Local Work Group Meeting on May 14, 2019 at the Phillips County Library basement. A total of 18 members of the community attended the meeting where they identified the top four resource concerns in Phillips County at this time based on SWAPA+H. SWAPA+H is the NRCS acronym for resource concerns and stands for Soil, Water, Air, Plants, Animals and Humans. The group was also asked to decide which land use the resource concern is located on. Phillips County’s primary NRCS defined land uses are: Range, Pasture, Crop and Irrigated Crop.

The group felt like the top resource concern was “water quantity and water quality” primarily on irrigated land use, but this is also a concern on range and pasture land uses as well. Logically, the second resource concern chosen was “stockwater” on all land uses (pasture, range and cropland). There was a tie for the third resource concern between “grazing management” and “invasive species” on all land uses. This information will be utilized by the NRCS and the Phillips Conservation District to implement a Phillips County Long Range Plan (LRP).

Based on the four top resource concerns for Phillips County, the group then separated into smaller groups and brainstormed on future projects that could assist in solving the top four resource problems in Phillips County. In a very short period of time, the group came up with many project ideas that can be further explored for potential Targeted Implementation Plans (TIP), which is the basis for securing future funding for NRCS programs in Montana.

In the event, that you missed this meeting and would still like to provide input as to what Phillips Counties top resource concerns are and potential future projects that may prove beneficial to YOU in regard to future NRCS funding in this area and our community—there is still time! Please contact, either Shilo Messerly, Malta Field Office NRCS District Conservationist (Shilo Messerly [email protected] 406-654-1334 x 104) or Jenifer Anderson, Phillips Conservation District Ad-ministrator (Jenifer Anderson [email protected] 406-654-1334 x 3) ASAP to get a SIMPLE QUESTIONAIRE to assist with documenting YOUR ideas related to this matter.

The deadline to submit YOUR ideas for Phillips County Resource Concerns and potential NRCS pro-jects for Fiscal Year 2020 is May 31, 2019. Keep in mind that at a minimum the NRCS and Phillips Conservation District will be reviewing this annually—so please as you have thoughts and ideas please feel free to share them with NRCS and/or Phillips Conservation District.