Rosetta Thompson, chairwoman of the Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District, Pam Harnden, chairwoman of the FCSWCD board of supervisors, center, Seth Bradstreet III, commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, right, and Joyce Swartzendruber, state conservationist of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, left, signed a cooperative working agreement at the Maine Association of Conservation Districts’ annual meeting recently.

County, state, federal agencies sign cooperative working agreement

FARMINGTON – Rosetta Thompson, district manager of the Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District, Pam Harnden, chairwoman of the Franklin County SWCD, Seth Bradstreet III, commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, and Joyce Swartzendruber, state conservationist of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, signed a cooperative working agreement at the Maine Association of Conservation Districts’ annual meeting in Bangor recently.

The purpose of the agreement is to supplement the existing mutual agreement between the USDA, the state and the Franklin County SWCD, that serve individual landowners, land users, federal and state land management agencies, individuals, groups and other units of government.

Historically, the parties have had a long standing partnership, working together to survey customer needs, determine natural resource priorities and develop planning strategies to address those issues.

In addition, the parties encourage the protection of natural resources, especially watersheds and shoreland zones, by sharing information and resources.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service seeks public input through the State Technical Committee as well as Local Work Groups, and Franklin County SWCD holds periodic locally-led conservation meetings to gain insight on what the public considers to be important natural resource issues, priorities and potential remedies.