Soil and Water official: district sold 3,200 trees, requests $130,000 farm grant

Dylan Sikowski Parra, representing Columbia County Soil and Water, told the board the district’s annual bare‑root tree sale moved 3,200 trees this spring at $2 each, part of an effort to make native conservation plantings affordable for residents. "This year we sold 3,200 trees to our community members," Sikowski Parra said.

He said the district recently completed a successful municipal assistance tree program that encouraged plantings at town halls and parks, is adding a farm‑program specialist starting June 8 to expand cover‑cropping and rotational‑grazing support, and has active on‑farm projects this summer. Sikowski Parra described outreach aimed at modestly resourced family farms and said the new hire will help scale work with cover crops and occasional grazing projects.

On funding, Sikowski Parra said the district applied to the Ag Nonpoint Pollution and Abatement Control Program on behalf of a beef farm. "We requested a $130,000 for this farm, for fence, for water systems, for watering facilities," he said, describing the planned engineered water system intended to spread cattle use and reduce stream impacts. The funding, he added, would pay for fencing, watering infrastructure and other measures to better manage manure and nutrient flows.

During questions, board members asked about farm counts, farm‑stand marketing and coordination with partners such as Cornell and county granges; Sikowski Parra offered to work with local groups to curate a farm list and said the district provides erosion and technical assistance beyond farm projects.

The report concluded with an offer to take constituent inquiries about local issues (for example, a dam concern raised during Q&A) and to route them to the district for follow‑up.