Welcome!
Foster County Soil Conservation District is here to promote soil, water, and resource conservation by offering technical, financial, informational, and educational assistance and opportunities to the people of Foster County.
Check out our programs and services. Get in touch with us if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, or if you are interested in participating in any of our programs.
Excess Conservation Grade
Tree Sale
Friday, June 9
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
261 14th Ave N
(Blue metal shed at the corner of 14th Ave and 3rd St N)
Carrington 2023 Arbor Day
Foster County Soil Conservation District held its 18th annual First Grade Tree Planting on May 12 this year. This event is part of the City of Carrington’s official Arbor Day celebration.
The Carrington Tree Board provided two trees for the Class of 2034 to plant. The students all pitched in to plant a “Dropmore” hybrid linden at the grade school grounds and a “Spring Snow” flowering crabapple tree at the city park. Darreon Carter, Lydia Cook, Reegan Ingebretson, and Artem Bondarenko got to take home the four kid-sized shovels provided by the SCD, and the students each received a conservation T-shirt and a Scotch pine tree seedling. The SCD also provided tree seedlings to first graders at Midkota and Kensal grade schools.
Not the Dirty Thirties, Spring of 2017!!
Photo: Storm Tracker Weather
Photo: Bev Nessler
These photos were taken spring of 2017, showing that soil erosion is still a threat to our farmland. These sights have been repeated more than once since then. See the "News and Information" page for photos from the dust storm of March 29-30, 2021. Parts of eastern North Dakota have lost over half of their topsoil since 1964.
"Most of what we call topsoil today is a mixture of the remains of the original higher organic matter topsoil mixed through tillage with some subsurface horizon. Loss of soil in millions of acres can be measured in feet over the past 120 years. Most lost soil...is going high into the air, and only a small amount lands in a roadside ditch." (Dave Franzen, NDSU) For more information, see the video "The History of Soil Erosion in North Dakota" on YouTube.
There are things we can do to prevent sights like this. Windbreaks that help decrease wind erosion are being removed and not replaced. There are other practices as well that promote soil health and will also help decrease erosion, such as keeping the soil covered with vegetation or residue, minimizing soil disturbance, and keeping live roots in the soil for as long as possible with practices like cover crops.
When land does well for its owner, and the owner does well by his land; when both end up better by reason of their partnership, we have conservation. -- Aldo Leopold