New site will allow county conservation district to carry out its mission in a new way
Jason Mihal, a soil conservation technician for the USDA, is just one of the people working out of the newly renovated Washington County Conservation District building on Old Hickory Ridge Road.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
A few Washington County Conservation District board members sit inside the newly built section of the building on Old Hickory Ridge Road.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
The newly renovated Washington County Conservation District building on Old Hickory Ridge Road near the Washington County Fairgrounds
Heads bobbing, a foursome of wild turkeys made their way up a brush-covered hillside in Arden Tuesday afternoon, unaware that a discussion about their habitat was going on inside the newly renovated Washington County Conservation District building nearby.
Now that the expansion of the building at 50 Old Hickory Ridge Road is complete, birds, butterflies, other wildlife – and humans – will likely be seeing changes next year in the 18 acres of county-owned land behind the conservation district parking lot.
The mission of the conservation district is to preserve the county’s soil, water and natural resources, but during its 51-year history, it hasn’t had the luxury of adjacent land on which to practice what it preaches.
Its office was previously confined to the Courthouse Square office building in downtown Washington, or its most recent location, a manufacturing complex just down North Main Street.
Jose J.A. Taracido, farmland habitat program supervisor of the Partners for Fish and Wildlife at California University of Pennsylvania, is a member of the Conservation District Board.
He was among those who attended an invitation-only open house Tuesday at the renovated building.
The end of the construction project meant the beginning of a new endeavor for Taracido’s program, because he hopes to be a driving force behind what may become a conservation district nature trail.
“We are going to target pollinator habitat because it benefits so many species,” Taracido explained.
“The monarch is the poster child, but there are a lot of other butterflies that are in just as big trouble as the monarch. You say something like the regal fritillary is in trouble, and nobody’s going to care because who’s heard of that?”
Since 1990, the monarch population has fallen 90 percent, of which Taracido said, “That’s quite a crash.”
According to the biologist, the reason the monarch is in trouble is the same reason many species of grassland songbirds and bees are in trouble: lack of habitat.
“The sky’s the limit,” he said. “We’ll look at it next spring.
Grassland songbirds, which Taracido called “little guys you never see,” may live in areas as small as an acre to more than 100 acres.
Some examples are the Savannah sparrow, grasshopper sparrow, upland sandpiper, bobwhite quail and non-native ring-necked pheasant.
“Things have changed since the 1960s, farms have changed, development has changed,” Taracido said. “Farms changed from multiple use to specialization. Certain grasses are maturing earlier, so we’re mowing earlier. Brush hogs allowed you to go places and cut things you normally would’ve left alone.”
Bill Iams of Amwell Township, also a member of the conservation district board, said, “I can look out at my farm and see nothing but woods in all directions.”
He’s the sixth generation to farm what is now a 475-acre beef-raising operation.
What’s missing from the picture is what Taracido calls “early successional habitat,” or young woods that host the blue-winged warbler, golden-winged warbler and American woodcock among bird species, and the Appalachian cottontail rabbit, all of which need trees 14 years and younger in which to hide from predators.
“Little trees need hugs, too, not just big trees,” Taracido said. “One size fits all doesn’t work. In wildlife biology, biodiversity is better.”
Partners for Fish and Wildlife hands out packets of seeds containing what is known as the Cal U. Custom-Pollinator mix, which includes nearly two dozen types of flowers such as black-eyed Susan, milkweeds, sunflowers, aster, lupine and clover, so those may someday be popping up along the Arden hillside along with a variety of grasses.
Where the conservation board members met Tuesday began in the 1970s as the Washington County Youth Development Center for juvenile offenders.
“We basically gutted it,” said Gary Stokum, manager of the Washington County Conservation District, of the renovated building at 50 Old Hickory Ridge Road, Arden.
The previous occupants were employees of Tyler Technologies Inc., the firm that reassessed properties in the county a few years ago.
Stokum pointed out somewhat ironically that no county property tax dollars paid for $2.1 million worth of renovations.
Joshua Hatfield, Washington County finance director, said Wednesday the county extended a 50 percent loan to the conservation district for construction.
“In the end, they’re covering all the costs of the renovation for the building,” Hatfield said. “The county’s not putting in a dime.”
The loan did not come out of the general fund but was funded through the budgetary fund balance, commonly known as a surplus, and the capital expenditure fund.
Stokum said the conservation district generated money for the project from earth-moving permit fees for turnpike construction, oil and gas production – excluding well pads and gathering lines, which are handled by the state Department of Environmental Protection – and natural gas transmission lines.
The building now measures about 9,000 square feet, and the cost of engineering and obtaining permits for the building addition and renovation cost another $100,000.
The front exterior wall became the backdrop for a main hallway as the front of the building was extended. A rubber roof was replaced in 2014, and the concrete floor remained intact.
“Everything else is brand-new,” Stokum said. A parking area for about a dozen cars was expanded to handle 47.
The conservation district and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency share space at the newly renovated building, handling congressionally authorized credit, commodity and conservation programs.