ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. (WANE)— In early March, the Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts announced the pause of programs and furlough of workers due to a lack of funding previously promised by the federal government. All of Indiana's 92 counties have a soil and water conserva tion district. The federal government is in breach of contract with the Allen County Soil and Water Conservation District (ACSWCD), according to Director and Conservationist Julie Davis Good. When given federal grants, the ACSWCD spends money and then bills the federal government the amount that would be covered by the grant. Then the feds reimburse them. But the payments have stopped, Good said. "For the fall and early winter of 2024 we expended almost $300,000 to work in the county, and the government has not pressed pay," Good said. With months of missing payments, conservation district workers are losing their jobs and farmers are losing support. "All of our people who are the scientists in the field, all of those have to be let go," Good said. Those scientists and engineers have spent years building relationships and working with Allen County farmers. They provide guidance on how to increase yields, reduce runoff and erosion, eradicate invasive species, etc. Dan Flotow owns Country Garden, 17 acres in southwest Allen County. It has been in his family for decades and never experienced flooding issues from the neighboring Aboite Creek until 2013. He believes it's because of all of the development upstream. So, for the past few years, Flotow has been working with the ACSWCD to devise a plan to mitigate flooding on his property. His crops are organic. So flooding is detrimental to his yields. "If we got a four inch rain in our in our area, I'll probably have water out in my field," Flotow said. "So, then those crops are all lost. That's all my business." With the halt of funding, the process to mitigate flooding on his land will be much more difficult. "It's just taking away a service that we all need," Flotow said. "As farmers, we need help with planning." Mark Muntzinger lives on a 78-acre farm about 5 miles from Country Garden. He grows crops typical of northern Indiana including corn, soybeans and wheat. Since working with the ACSWCD, he has learned about the benefits and practiced the use of cover crops. "This field used to hold water," Muntzinger said as he pointed to a field on the south side of his property. "If we had a half-inch of rain, we would have water laying on the soil for a day, day-and-a-half. Now, if we have an inch of rain, we basically have about one spot that has water in it, and it'll be gone in less than 24 hours." Muntzinger said he has been reaping the benefits of the practices he has learned through the ACSWCD. He said he has seen less runoff and higher yields. He also pointed out that his yields were virtually unaffected by the severe drought experienced in the summer of 2024 due to his use of cover crops. "It shaped the journey from me trying to reinvent the wheel all the time," Muntzinger said." They got me past step one, and we just went right forward, and we could learn on a faster pace and see the benefits of [how] they were helping us." If funding to the ACSWCD continues to be frozen, Muntzinger said he would have to scale down his use of cover cropping because of the lack of financial assistance and guidance he would receive. He refused to completely stop, though. He said the benefits have been too great to stop. "Instead of 40 or 50 pounds to the acre maybe we go to 20 pounds to the acre, again, make it more economically feasible," Muntzinger said. Not just rural farms being impacted The ACSWCD also provides resources and financial assistance to urban agriculture operations. One of those success stories is the Bloomingdale community garden, just a few blocks north of downtown Fort Wayne on High St. "We had a 10 year plan for the garden," Curator Chris Walker said. "And we were able to do that in one year thanks to their assistance." Walker said his community garden is involved in a number of partnerships. But the ACSWCD has helped with some of their biggest projects, according to him. The latest example is a water tap that is being installed in the garden. "Before that, I used to take buckets of water and carry them across High St. over to the garden, 20 times a day," Walker said. "And that would not have been possible without the Soil and Water Conservation District." If the lack of funding persists, projected of that scale will be virtually impossible, according to Walker. "In terms of large projects, that would be much more difficult for us," Walker said as he pointed to the far side of the garden. "That is a giant pile of mulch, and when we order soil and mulch and other consumables every year, that starts to add up quite a bit." Walker said the garden will be able to carry on, just with fewer resources. The Bloomingdale community garden is free for anyone and in the summer, it boasts a wide variety of produce including tomatoes, herbs, peppers, grapes and even kiwis. "We contribute to a local food bank here at Trinity United Methodist," Walker said. "The kids come over from the school and pick stuff all the time that they've actually planted. We have a large unhoused population, obviously downtown, and they will come and get free things out of the garden." ...read more read less