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County conservationists accept accolades at annual banquet
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RETIREMENT PLANNING: Alan Knapp has secured about $50 million in grants while serving with the Trumbull County Planning Commission. He's retiring after nearly three decades.
Organizers of the Howland Boardwalk project also were honored.
STAFF REPORT
CORTLAND — Alan Knapp, Trumbull County’s planning director, was awarded the Bill Penn Memorial Award, the county’s highest award for conservation, at the recent Trumbull Soil and Water Conservation District annual awards banquet.
“Mr. Knapp’s support of natural resources, recreation, and conservation activities over the years made him a well-deserving recipient,” said Mike Wilson, SWCD executive director. Knapp is retiring at the end of this month.
The award is named after Bill Penn, who was the district conservationist from 1956 to 1981.
David Ambrose of Warren received the SWCD’s Conservationist of the Year award.
“His efforts for alternative energy through the local Green Ohio program he chairs and for proper land use especially with his involvement on the board of the Trumbull County MetroParks, where he helped to develop the Western Reserve Greenway, made him an ideal and worthy recipient,” Wilson said.
Stephanie Sferra received the SWCD Friend of the Land Award from the SWCD staff for working with the district as the director of the Trumbull County Tourism Bureau.
A first-time award was presented to Darlene St. George, administrator of Howland Township; Bill DiCiccio, president of the Mahoning River Consortium; and Trish Nuskievicz, assistant director of the Trumbull County Planning Commission for their partnership in the Howland Boardwalk project. The SWCD recognized their efforts as the Conservation Project of the Year.
The SWCD also handed out annual awards to those who made special efforts in natural resources over the past year in these categories: Outstanding Conservation Educator went to Margie Adair of LaBrae Middle School; Outstanding Conservation Forestry award went to John Detweiler and Donnie Schmucker of Trumbull County Hardwoods for their efforts in timber harvesting.
The Outstanding Conservation Farmer award went to Richard and Chad Thompson of Heritage Hill Farms for their efforts with agriculture conservation practices; and the Outstanding Conservation Contractor/Developer title went to Max Shifflet and John Taratine, engineers at the Youngstown Air Reserve Base in Vienna.
The SWCD handed out the traveling plaque to the first-place team from this year’s Junior High Envirothon winning team of Champion Middle School under the direction of science adviser and teacher Dave Murdoch.
Trumbull Educators Association of Christian Home Schoolers was also recognized for its fourth-place finish out of 20 teams from Ohio and Pennsylvania in the Watershed Challenge, an environmental competition.
The Trumbull SWCD is a political subdivision of the state that provides natural-resources assistance.