Conservation volunteers honored during National Volunteer Week

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is celebrating National Volunteer Week April 6-13 by thanking and honoring its Earth Team volunteers for their service to conservation. Earth Team is the agency’s volunteer workforce, and nationally in 2013 more than 22,000 people donated 330,084 hours of service to NRCS worth approximately $7.3 million.

    “Volunteers work closely with our staff, and they play an important role in our state’s conservation work,” said USDA-NRCS Piscataquis County District Conservationist David Power. Volunteers are invaluable in helping us implement conservation practices in this county in partnership with the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District.
    “We are grateful for the help, but we also recognize much more conservation work needs to be done,” noted Power.
    Earth Team is a program that partners volunteers with NRCS employees. It was created in 1985 and offers many opportunities to individuals 14 and older who are interested in volunteering to improve the nation’s natural resources. Earth Team volunteers help NRCS conservationists provide private landowners and others a range of services from conservation technical assistance to teaching and generating awareness about conservation through community projects.
    Earth Team Volunteers allow NRCS to stretch available resources and help put additional conservation practices on the ground. Volunteer efforts help improve land and wildlife habitat and contribute to cleaner water and air for everyone.
    Learn more about the Earth Team Volunteer Program at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/people/volunteers or by calling 888-526-3227. For more information on USDA-NRCS visit www.nrcs.usda.gov. To register locally to become an Earth Team volunteer, please contact USDA-NRCS or the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District at 564-2321 extension 3.