FARMINGTON – The Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District is accepting submissions for the 2008 conservation poster contest through Friday, Feb. 20.

The contest is open to all Franklin County students in grades kindergarten to 12. This year’s theme is “Dig It! The Secrets of Soil.”

The Maine Association of Conservation Districts competition will be held at the end of February, and the cut-off date for the district contest will be 4 p.m. Feb. 20, said Rosetta Thompson, district manager. “We’d like to see over 100 posters competing this year,” she said.

State contest winners will move on to national competition. The National Association of Conservation Districts is using the Dig It! theme in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Soil Science Society of America.

The collaboration will complement the Smithsonian’s “Dig It! The Secrets of Soil” exhibition on display through Jan. 3, 2010. The display will travel to museums across the country from May 2010 to September 2013.

Contest divisions are grades kindergarten and one, two and three, four to six; seven to nine and 10 to 12. A completed entry form must be attached to the back of the poster.

The district winner will receive a $50 savings bond. Second- and third-place winners will receive a gift certificate for a plant through the district’s shrub program.

The first-place winner in each division will be entered in the state contest. Top state winners in each division will go on to the national competition. The contest is open to public, private and home-school students.

For more information about the contest or the Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District, call 778-4279, e-mail [email protected] or visit http://www.nacdnet.org/education/contests/poster/#2009.