The Westmoreland Conservation District will present two awards for outstanding conservation service and rename its 1880s-era barn building headquarters posthumously in honor of its longtime chairman, J. Roy Houston.

The events are planned for September 12 and the public is invited to attend an open house-type reception, which runs from 6:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the District’s location on Donohoe Road.

Receiving awards are:

-- Helen Clevenger, and Rick and Mary Duncan – Farmer of the Year

-- Jacobs Creek Watershed Association – J. Roy Houston Conservation Partnership Award sponsored by Peoples Natural Gas

Two generations -- Helen Clevenger, and Rick and Mary Duncan -- are being recognized as the Westmoreland Conservation District’s 2013 Conservation Farmer of the Year for the many conservation measures they’ve installed on their 180-acre Derry Township beef farm.   

One of the most dramatic is a large, roofed heavy-use area, which provides a place for the herd to stay in inclement weather, and a dry-stack manure-storage area.  Both features significantly reduce erosion of the pastures (sediment) and the amount of animal contaminates (nutrients) that wash into the stream on the property, which is a tributary of Stony Run.

Clevenger and the Duncans also installed a spring development with water troughs, an access road for people and equipment, an animal walkway for the cows, a large diversion ditch, a stream buffer, and gutters and downspouts with subsurface drainage to several existing buildings.

The Stony Run Watershed has been identified as an area for focused conservation efforts because its waterways have one of the highest levels of sediment and nutrient pollution in Westmoreland County.

The Jacobs Creek Watershed Association, recipient of the J. Roy Houston Conservation Partnership Award, is being recognized for its decades of important conservation work, including helping to realize one of the most significant conservation improvements in Westmoreland County, the Jacobs Creek Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Project. 

This project, which includes Acme Dam, Bridgeport Dam, Greenlick Dam, and the Scottdale Channel, has been protecting area residents and businesses from flooding and providing recreation opportunities since the early 1970s.  It is one of only a few such projects in the entire U.S. that addresses an entire watershed.

More recently, Jacobs Creek Watershed Association became one of only a few such organizations that has completed a Watershed Implementation Plan and been identified by the Department of Environmental Resources as a priority watershed. 

This designation opened the door for the organization to receive grant money, which was used to fund a number of water-quality improvements in Laurelville, Scottdale, Mount Pleasant, Acme, and other communities throughout the 98 square miles that it covers.

The J. Roy Houston Conservation Center will be the official new name of the 1880s-era barn on Donohoe Road in Hempfield Township where the Westmoreland Conservation District has its offices and holds many of its conservation-education events.

Houston was the guiding force of the District for 40 years; a level of service unparalleled in the organization’s 64-year history.

Roy was an employee of Peoples Natural Gas Company in 1968 when the company encouraged its workers to volunteer with area organizations.  He became a member of the District’s board that year, and was elected chairman of the board in 1970.  He held that volunteer post until November 2010 when he passed away at age 82.

The District’s barn headquarters originally was an animal and grain barn on a working farm in Penn Township, Westmoreland County.  After nearly 120 years of agricultural service, the barn was no longer being used and, in fact, was in the direct path of a planned housing development when the District rescued it, moved it to its present location along Donohoe Road in Hempfield Township, retrofitted it with practical, green materials, and gave it a new use as a conservation headquarters/education center.

The J. Roy Houston Conservation Partnership Award is sponsored by Peoples Natural Gas Company.

Also supporting the 2013 awards presentation, building dedication, and reception are:  Adam Eidemiller Inc.; Bove Engineering Company; KAG Engineering Incorporated; Lee - Simpson Associates, Inc.; Lennon, Smith, Souleret Engineering, Inc.; Ligonier Construction Company; The Markosky Engineering Group Inc; R.A. Smith National Inc.; Tri-County Engineering, LLC.; and the Westmoreland County Parks Citizens Advisory Board.

For more information, visit the Westmoreland County Conservation District website.

9/9/2013