Isanti Soil & Water Conservation District

SWCD Voting Guide

SWCD Board candidates appear on the ballot for the general election taking place on November 5th. The Isanti SWCD is overseen by a five-member board, with each member representing their district. This year, the Isanti SWCD has three district Supervisor positions up for election:

District 3 (Spencer Brook, Wyanett, Stanford Townships):

 

Mitchell (Mitch) McElrath

 

What motivated you to become a candidate for an Isanti Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor? What relevant experience do you have?

For me, my motivation comes from my positive experiences working with Isanti County Soil and Water staff, as well as my family. As a father of young children, I feel a great sense of responsibility to preserve and restore the land and waters of the community my family will be raised in.  I hope to be a great example to my children of what it means to be the steward of our community. 

For relevant experience, over the last 2-3 years I have worked with Soil and Water on mitigation, infiltration, and erosion control projects on my personal property. With much of the work being done by friends and family giving me a hands on look at what it takes to make a difference in the health of our ecosystem. 

What is the biggest issue facing a supervisor at this time?

   This is a big question. I feel that the biggest issue is, and will continue to be, how to use available resources to make the best impact in our county. 

Please explain what conservation ideas you have, or changes you intend to make, to ensure the sustainability of natural resources in your district.

   One of my main goals would be to find a way to make the work Soil and Water does more visible and meaningful for the younger generations.  I by no means am an old man, but the people that can make an impact are our children. Finding a way to inspire them is deeply important to me. 

Franklin Curtis

 

What motivated you to become a candidate for an Isanti Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor? What relevant experience do you have?

   It was my son’s idea that I ran. I got his first home seeded into native grasses and forbs then did it again at his next home which was more work. I have 30 acres near Green Lake and have about 30 species of native grasses and 150 forbs, so I have done all these projects that made me want to get involved. I have background in this field. I worked for a decade at Prairie Restorations. In 1969 I got a degree in biology, and I am interested in the value of conservation and understanding of the world and the minutia is important. I have had some farming background living on a farm for about ten years too.

 

What is the biggest issue facing a supervisor at this time?

    The biggest issue is probably deciding what is most important to be done. Doing a project in one area and how does it impact everything else. You need to think beyond the area you are working in, what’s best for Isanti County, and the area beyond that. And how- what is best fighting nature or encouraging manmade solutions? For myself native plantings have worked for me but that may not be the case for everyone.

 

Please explain what conservation ideas you have, or changes you intend to make, to ensure the sustainability of natural resources in your district.

    I want to get more people involved. Everyone should be a teacher. I taught all of my seven children about conservation. But I don’t want to come in with ideas contrary to what the community is working on. I want to get it all done. I can do what I can do and just encourage others to do the same.

 

The following Isanti SWCD Supervisor candidates are running unopposed and currently serve on the Isanti SWCD board.

District 1 (Maple Ridge, Stanchfield, Springvale, Dalbo Townships):

Valerie (Val) Anderson

Val Anderson

What motivated you to become a candidate for an Isanti Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor? What relevant experience do you have?

    I have partnered with the Isanti SWCD as a member of the Water Plan since 1991 and have served one term as a SWCD supervisor.  I grew up on a farm on Green Lake. Now, my husband and I have had a tree farm on Adams Lake since 1981. I have chaired the Board of Adjustment for many years and since 1988 I have been the Clerk of Stanchfield Township.  Through all this, I have seen the effects of decisions made that both helped and hurt our water quality and our soil.  I understand the relationship between land use & the environment and steps needed to protect/improve our water and soils.  I work with local and state government and the neighbors in our community to make wise decisions on what can be done to protect the resources in Isanti County. Sometimes the decisions are hard, but we need to keep in mind the long-term effects of what we do today. Our aquifers (and the Rum River) are what we drink from and send to the metro area for their use, it is important to keep this precious resource clean by what we do today.

What is the biggest issue facing a supervisor at this time?

   A dedicated stream of funding for the projects we do and our staff.

Please explain what conservation ideas you have, or changes you intend to make, to ensure the sustainability of natural resources in your district.

   There already have been wonderful projects and changes Isanti County has made to make our soils and water better.  I will continue to work with property owners and government agencies to keep doing projects such as restoring shoreland and monitoring the Rum River and lakes for impaired waters.  Working with the 1P1W for the Rum River will help involve other counties in the watershed to keep the river healthy.  It has been disappointing to see the introduction of invasive species, we can prevent additional species spread by getting the information on cleaning their boats out to boaters and property owners.  Keeping compliant with projects like the buffer law will help keep contaminants from our ditches and streams and working with Lakeshore Improvement Districts to keep our lakes healthy will sustain our lakes and soils.  A major concern is how close the Mt Simon Aquifer is in Isanti County.  Protection is needed because of the porous soils within the Anoka Sand Plain to keep this aquifer from contamination.  My goal is to work with property owners to share information on how to work on the surface to keep our soil healthy and waters clean.  

 

District 4 (Cambridge Township):

Al Koczur

What motivated you to become a candidate for an Isanti Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor? What relevant experience do you have?

   I was a member of Pheasants Forever since it’s inception in Isanti County. The SWCD manager at that time, Mark Demuth was doing a lot of Prairie grass planting on CRP acres for the local farmers. He felt it would be a good idea if, my being in Pheasants Forever, it would be good to have me on as a supervisor. I did grow up on a farm. We had corn, small grains and dairy cattle, so I was always concerned about water usage and stormwater runoff because it definitely affected us. I also did a lot of bird hunting as I was growing up, so I was always concerned about habitat for wildlife.

What is the biggest issue facing a supervisor at this time?

   My experience was that we got proper training on all the issues involving soil and water, however that has not happened, or did not happen to me, because we did not have the funds to do so. Basically, I had to learn on the fly so to speak. I believe that it is difficult as a supervisor to understand all the regulations involving soil and water districts. 

It is also very difficult to get a handle on getting enough funding to run a proper district.  We are very fortunate here at Isanti Soil and Water that we have a great staff. I know the biggest concerns of some supervisors of other districts is involving staff. If having a staff that does not work well together happened here that would be very difficult and cause me to lose a lot of sleep.

Please explain what conservation ideas you have, or changes you intend to make, to ensure the sustainability of natural resources in your district.              

My feeling is that as supervisors, we hire a staff that has creative ideas and good ideas on how to conserve our resources in our district. I feel that the staff should be given the leeway to make great conservation decisions and discuss them with the supervisors to get the supervisors backing. Certainly, the people on our staff have had much more training and know much more about conservation than I do, so I feel my job is to listen to the staff, discuss their ideas, and together we work out what is best for everyone.