Matt Capper likes to use Kool-aid, but not in a quart of water.

Monday, May 22, 2000

Matt Capper likes to use Kool-aid, but not in a quart of water.

Instead, Capper sprinkles the colored dust onto the simulated hills and fields of his Enviroscape model.

Then, a spray of water washes it into the simulated valleys and creeks, which shows how soils erode and chemicals can enter streams.

"You’re a lot better off letting kids see things hands-on," said Capper, education coordinator at Lawrence Soil and Water Conservation District.

"They don’t just read about it, they see the effects of rain or sediment and oil spills," he said.

At Friday’s district Water Festival, hundreds of students saw the demonstration, and hopefully took away a little more knowledge about their environment, which is soil and water’s primary mission, district board chairman Bob Day said.

"Like this here today, the kids get to learn from this," Day said. "It helps them down through life, when they can look back and understand erosion and how farming, water, creeks, our environment works."

In fact, the education mission is so important that Capper is working full-time this year, he said.

The district was one of seven counties to receive an education grant from the Ohio Soil and Water Conservation Mission and the Division of Soil and Water Conservation in February.

That grant allowed Capper to move into full-time work, Day said.

But education is not the only thing the publicly-funded district does during the year, he added.

Administrative assistant Peggy Reynolds and district technician Donnie Myers joins Capper on the district’s team to assist farmers, landowners and others on conservation efforts and on ways to work successfully with the environment, he said.

Drought relief, engineering services, farm equipment rental – it’s all available through the district’s Linnville office, Myers said.

"If it weren’t for soil and water, people would miss out on a lot of things," he said.

There’s a program that will fit for just about anybody, Capper added.

"There is expertise out there," he said. "It’s where we all come together to help our neighbors and ourselves."

During the last eight months, the district has brought more than $550,000 to the county through extra projects and work from the Ohio Pollution Abatement Cost Share Program, education grant, Ohio Drought Relief Cost Share Program, Challenge Grant, Log Jam Removal Program and state matching dollars.

An Arbor Day program provided free white pines and information to 58 county classrooms. The district also runs Envirothon and soil judging contests at the high schools, as well as coloring and poster contests in other schools.

The district provides technical assistance, like designing and surveying for tile, spring development, work on access roads and waterways and assistance for drainage problems.

And, the office can coordinate the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service programs within the Lawrence County.

First created in 1947, the soil and water district is one of 88 across the state and is governed by a volunteer local board of supervisors – Day, Dale Brown, John Pratt, David Kline and Ralph Carrico.

Funding for the district is provided by the Lawrence County Commission, with matching money from the state, and income from equipment rentals, tree sales and fish sales.