CASSOPOLIS — If you live in Cass County, you have benefited from Cass County Conservation District efforts to create cleaner groundwater and a better quality of life for residents.

Imagine black dust clouds rolling over the horizon, grit in your teeth. Picture fields with gullies so big you could lose a car in them. That was Cass County in 1943.

It is often forgotten that the Dust Bowl years were here, too, not just out West.

On Sept. 17, 1943, residents of Cass County decided to do something about the ecological disaster and established the Cass County Conservation District by a vote of county farmers, making it the 13th District in Michigan.

The district embraced approximately 90,000 acres, comprising all of Silver Creek, Pokagon, LaGrange and Wayne townships.

For operational funding, directors solicited $25 contributions from township boards, created its first “work plan” in 1944, and in 1945 the Robert Sprague Farm became Conservation Plan No. 1. By 1947, with interest running high, the district received permission to include the remaining 11 townships.

Total land area for the district became 306,320 acres, of which 252,561 acres were farm land.

There were 2,198 farms in the district, with an average of 110 acres per farm.

The district’s 1949 annual report stated, “Most of these farms have been farmed over 100 years with too frequent plowing of rolling land, too many cultivated crops on rolling and hilly land, depletion of organic matter in the soil, too much removal of woods from hilly land, insufficient use of manure, liming material and fertilizer, too many fields left exposed over winter, insufficient control of run-off water which results in gullying and not enough acres of soil building legumes. It is our objective to change some of these practices in order to conserve the soil for better farming.”

The first Board of Directors consisted of Paul Conklin, Leonard Jerue, Marshall Fosdick, William Trowbridge and Paul File. The district requested and received assistance from the U.S. Soil Conservation Service (SCS).

Hale Pearce, work unit conservationist, and Milton Stager, conservation technician, served the district until 1948.

William Westrate, work unit conservationist, and George Wiersma, conservation technician, assisted the district from 1948-1977. These SCS technicians helped farmers plan and apply conservation to the land and other SCS technicians such as engineers, foresters, biologists, soils and crops specialists were called in as needed.

R.F. “Jack” Bittner, county ag agent, was active in the district since its inception, explaining the soil conservation district program to farmers and groups, and served as secretary for the board.

The extension office and fistrict functioned as a unit on education activities such as tours, demonstrations and meetings.

Succeeding county ag agents (Harold Sparks, Fred Sackrider and Wayne Hothem) continued as acting secretary for the district through 1978, with the district aide assuming this responsibility in 1978.

Over the years, the district has used various programs to promote conservation.

The best known is the annual tree sale, which has provided an inexpensive opportunity to purchase seedlings which when planted enhance land quality, stop erosion and create wildlife habitat. Workshops included Iron Days/Field Days, which demonstrated various farm equipment and techniques, Backyard Conservation Series and other educational wildlife and conservation seminars.