You go by many names! Please explain them to me.

Our official full name is the Orleans County Natural Resources Conservation District. It's a mouth full! So we also go by Orleans County NRCD or the Conservation District or just the District. And we use the abbreviation OCNRCD.

What is a conservation district? What exactly do you do?

Conservation Districts exist in every state and most counties across the Uuited States and have been around since the Dust Bowl.

We are a non-regulatory agency that advocates for clean water and healthy soils with farmers and other land stewards. Our primary role is to build local relationships and to help land stewards make conservation decisions and to access technical and financial resources. We do this by often serving as a liaison to the variety of voluntary technical and financial resources available from the state and federal government. Thus we work closely with the county NRCS (see below) office to help deliver their programming. 

What is the difference between a NRCD and the NRCS?

NRCD's are conservation districts while the NRCS is the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which is a governmental program under the USDA. To make it even more confusing, our two organizations work closeley with each other!

Is a Conservation District a government entity? Or is it a non-profit?

The Orleans County NRCD exists by state statute but is a non-governmental agency. We function a bit like a non-profit (most of our work is grant funded) but we are legally treated like a municipality. It's as confusing as our name!

What type of board supervision do you have?

Every conservation district has  board members, which we call supervisors. Our supervisors provide overall leadership to the district manager and help guide the strategic direction of the organization. 

Where is are the offices of the OCNRCD located?

We are housed in the USDA office in Newport even though we are not officially government employees.