Conservation chief wants agency to link with northern counties

The Western Reserve council has experience with urban sprawl problems.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
CORTLAND -- Does Trumbull County have more in common with counties to the south such as Mahoning, Columbiana, Carroll and Tuscarawas or with ones to the north such as Lake, Cuyahoga and Ashtabula?
The new Trumbull County Soil and Water Conservation District executive director says the answer is to the north, where environmental issues related to housing construction may be more similar to Trumbull than issues faced by counties to the south.
That's why Mike Wilson, who was hired by the agency in June, asked Trumbull commissioners this week to approve a switch to the Western Reserve Resource Conservation and Development Council based in Lake County. Trumbull County is in the Crossroads council based in New Philadelphia.
The council's board approved the change at its last meeting. Commissioners are expected to take up the issue this week.
A resource conservation and development council helps secure grants for its members, provides literature and other assistance, Wilson said.
SWCD Chairwoman Susan Montgomery is excited about the change. She serves as Area 2 director of the Ohio Federation of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, which partners with soil and water officials from Portage, Geauga and Ashtabula counties.
With those officials, she has spent much time discussing their common environmental issues, which has led her to wish for a greater partnership. "It's the part of Ohio where we belong," Montgomery said.
More grant opportunities
Joining with the nine counties in the Western Reserve council will greatly increase opportunities for grants because it receives many from groups such as the Gund Foundation, she said.
That foundation joined with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to create the Center for Farmland Preservation in 2000. The center attempts to conserve agricultural lands in the district and promote agriculture as a viable part of the Northeast Ohio economy, a brochure states.
Wilson noted that another factor is that Trumbull County is home to the headwaters of the Grand River Valley, which also extends into Ashtabula, Geauga and Lake counties.
The Western Reserve council was allocated a $600,000 grant in 1993 for a Grand River protection project. In this project and others like it, the council promotes the use of conservation easements, in which people owning agricultural and streamside properties are compensated for placing their land in this protected state.
Montgomery said that instead of being involved in issues relating to Civil War sites the way the Crossroads council has begun to do, Trumbull County aligns better with the Western Reserve coalition "because of our urban issues."
She explained that the biggest environmental issues in Trumbull County have to do with urban sprawl, which the Western Reserve council has much experience with.
"That will be a huge benefit to the county," she said. Montgomery is a dairy farmer from the Newton Falls area.
"We need to get people away from the idea of buying a 5-acre plot and placing a home in the middle of it," Montgomery said, referring to an example of urban sprawl. She would rather see people use part of that land and preserve the rest in its natural state.