Eastern Pennington (SD) Soil and Conservation District This chapter is from "Eastern Pennington County Memories", published by The American Legion Auxilliary, Carrol McDonald Unit, Wall, South Dakota And is uploaded with their kind permission. Page 28 Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net, 1999. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm Eastern Pennington Soil and Water Conservation District A hearing was held in Wall, South Dakota March 3, 1945 for the purpose of discussing reasons for and against establishing a District. Every farmer interviewed at this meeting had some problem of soil erosion and or water conservation which he believed could be remedied with the assistance of a trained technician in the field of conservation. The chief type of erosion common to most operators was sheet and gully erosion which had reduced fertility and water holding capacity of the soil and cut many fields into small irregular tracts which are difficult or impossible to farm due to gullies. Other needs were expressed such as the need for more complete utilization of water, and the use of stock dams on rangeland; diversion ditches and dikes to lead water onto range and hayland; and the retention of water where it falls on cropland by terracing, contouring, and tillage methods which leave as much crop aftermath on the surface as possible. Other details of the meeting included the establishment of a boundary of the District as all the privately owned land in Pennington County east of the Cheyenne River and the District was named Eastern Pennington Soil Conservation District. In 1946 a referendum was held at which time more than two-thirds of the land owners voted in favor of forming the District. On January 24, 1947, the District was approved by the Secretary of State which established legal relationship between the Eastern Pennington Soil Conservation District, The Department of Agriculture, and the Soil Conservation Service. Accordingly, the Soil Conservation Service appointed a Work Unit Conservationist to assist the District in carrying out the details of their conservation problems. In addition, a pickup and some surveying equipment and office space was furnished, but the District had no funds with which to acquire other needs. Government owned equipment was offered to the District on a loan basis for the construction of stock dams and other earthen structures, but the Supervisors rejected the offer. They felt that even though there was insufficient privately owned equipment at that time to do all the desired work, that soon the time would come when there would be sufficient equipment and at that time the District did not wish to be in competition with local contractors. Their foresight proved to be correct and there has been sufficient equipment privately owned to do the work except in very few cases. Funds have been raised by the District by the sale of corrugated culverts and a tree planting program. The board of directors in 1946 included: Tony Krebs chairman; Edmund Eisenbraun Treasurer; Kirk T. Mears Secretary; also Osborne Kitterman, William Bielmaier, Sr. and Emil Seiler as members. At the present time the Board of directors include: David Kitterman Chairman; Tony Krebs Vice Chairman; James Kjerstad SecretaryTreasurer, Emil Seiler, Edmund Eisenbraun and Reuben Deutscher as members. The accomplishments of the District listed below have been made possible by the assistance and cooperation of the Agriculture Conservation Program of the ASC; Agriculture Extension Service: Soil Conservation Service; Great Plains Conservation Program; Farmers Home Administration; Department of Fish, Game and Parks; Forest Service; The Local Bank; Conservation Contractors; 4H Clubs; Schools; County Commissioners; and the Farmers and Ranchers who for their willingness went ahead with their Conservation work. The building of farm ponds; fish pond stocking; wildlife development and preservation; water spreading; irrigation systems; drainage ditches; diversions; terracing; contour cropping; stubble mulching; tree planting; range proper use; pasture and hayland planting; Great Plains Contracts; rotation seeding; stock wells; installation of pipelines; weed control; pond sealing, etc. In 1964, all the city, State and Government land was included in the District, which makes a total of 782,385 acres.* Much work has been done in Eastern Pennington County since that first meeting in 1945 when a group of local farmers decided they needed a local Conservation District. With the continued cooperation of all those interested, conservation will continue in our area and the hope of the Board of Supervisors is that there will be less and less erosion and wasting of our valuable resources in the years to come. * Total Acres in District 782,385; Urban and large water areas -- 1,700; Acreage of state, city and county land not in farms or ranches (forests, parks, highways, etc.) -- 6304; Federal Land -- 272,320; Privately owned land -- 502,061. [Photo - Original board of the Eastern Pennington Soil and Water Conservation District. Supervisors, 1. to r.: Tony Krebs, Emil Sieler, William Bielmaier, Sr., Osburn Kitterman. Not pictured: Edmund Eisenbraun.] [Photo - Fire truck purchased in 1962. Standing: Chief Howard Connolly, Vernice Hildebrandt, Wesley Welch, Irving Helm and son, Earl. Cliff Szarkowski. In back of truck: Norman Klingbile, Bud Estes and Woody Shelton.]