CENTRE — The Cherokee County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) has been around since 1958, but locals who aren't farmers might not be very familiar with the agency, or what it does.

In a county that boasts thousands of acres of farmland, pastureland, and timberland, however, the men and women who make a living off their property rely on the District to uphold its mission statement, which is “helping people help the land.”

During today's Cherokee County Commission meeting, representatives from SWCD will attend to ask for additional funding, which they believe will enable them to better perform their many duties. Representatives from the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service will be on-hand to provide technical support to the District.

Retired pipefitter Merle Grimes, who serves on the SWCD's five-member District Board of Supervisors, said funding for a full-time technician in Cherokee County would help bring in additional federal grant money to local farmers.

“We assist landowners in the different programs that are offered,” Grimes said. “But without the people to fill out the paperwork and bring in these matching grants, we can't get as much done as we used to.”

Grimes said the District has been understaffed for the past six years, but still managed to fund over $964,000 in federal and state soil and conservation programs in 2009.

Prior to Fiscal Year 2009, Grimes said, the county government typically directed only around $4,000 per year to the SWCD.

“I think we finally got $7,500 the year-before-last, and $10,000 last year,” Grimes said. “Now, we're asking for enough money to do more of the things we need to do for the people who come to us.”

District officials are hoping that the County Commission, which has been working on its Fiscal Year 2011 budget for several weeks, can find enough extra money to fund a full-time technician to assist local farmers and landowners. Officials would also love to make the part-time secretary's job permanent, Grimes added.

“We have one full-time technician right now,” said NRCS District Conservationist Philip Abney. “He works half the time in Cherokee County, half the time in Etowah. That has really affected our ability to meet the needs of the general public.”

The Centre office is charged with working with just about anyone who lives off the land – including row-crop farmers, livestock, poultry and swine producers, timber owners, and catfish farmers – to improve the quality and productivity of the soil, water and air.

Abney offered one example of the type of improvements the SWCD and NRCS worked together to help local farmers achieve in the past decade.

“One of the major things that has happened over the last ten years is going from conventional tillage to conservation tillage, so there is not as much disturbance of the soil,” Abney said. “That has greatly reduced the amount of silt and sediment going into creeks, streams and the lake.”

The SWCD also assists farmers with a myriad of other improvement projects, including the implementation of crop rotation plans, establishing storage programs for poultry and swine farmers in order to decrease litter runoff into the water supply, and assisting livestock producers with replenishing pasture grass affected by recent drought conditions.

“There are a lot of things this office does that people don't know about, or ever get the information about,” Grimes said. “We could assist more people if they knew more.”

Because of the current funding situation, Grimes said, there are sometimes whole days when there isn't even anyone in the office to answer the phone.

“It's hard to help people when we don't have anybody here,” he said. “Everything we do helps the county as a whole, and if we can get more money we can help more people.”