Nye County Commissioner Wichman talks Conservation District

Nye County Commissioner Lorinda Wichman was elected in 2008 and not long after assuming her seat on the board, she said she was designated as the county’s “noxious weed gal,” a position that led her to her involvement with the Tonopah Conservation District.

For the past six years, Wichman has served as the chairwoman of the conservation district, whose main function is conservation of soil and water resources. To do this, public involvement is key. Wichman is trying to raise awareness about the entity and all it can do for community members.

The Tonopah Conservation District is enormous, encompassing everything in Nye County north of Beatty.

“It started out many, many decades ago as a soil conservation district and it has expanded over time so that it helps producers, anybody who is producing products,” Wichman explained. “We partner with other entities and use grants to fund our projects. Anything that can be considered conservation, I am pretty sure could fit into our directive and our mission statement. I just wish I could get more people involved.”

When working with the conservation district, producers are required to foot the bill for some of the total cost for whatever conservation projects they undertake, with the conservation district striving to cover a majority of the price tag. Additionally, the producers are required to follow a plan as outlined with the conservation district, to ensure the funding is being used in an effective manner.

“We have to have some checkpoints along the way, milestones that we meet,” Wichman said. “But the Tonopah Conservation District is also able to attract enough grants and help throughout the year that sometimes we can help reduce the cost to the landowner even more. A lot of times the landowner ends up only paying about 20 to 25 percent of the entire project.”

Wichman noted that although producers are the main objective of the district’s focus, there is room for non-producers to utilize the conservation district as well. One of the largest parts of the conservation district is invasive and noxious weed control, which some non-producers can benefit from.

“It’s been really hard to get the word out and let people know what it is and what we can do to help because a lot of people look at it as, ‘They can’t help me, I’m not a producer, I don’t have crops or cows.’ But that is not necessarily true,” Wichman said. “If the land they own is close to BLM or forest service land, we can sometimes help them with their private lands just in handling the noxious and invasive weeds.”

On top of conservation projects with producers and non-producers, the Tonopah Conservation District also assists with a variety of other tasks.

“We’ve done an awful lot to help our backwoods trail guys, like the Friends of the Nevada Wilderness. We help recruit people who want to go up and clean trails and make sure they are blazed correctly and establish new trails,” Wichman said by way of example. “We also give grants every year to help fund young students who want to go to Range Camp in the summer. We cover the registration for two youth who want to go to the conservation camp and it is a wonderful program.”

Wichman recalled a young lady who went to Range Camp several years ago and later went back to the Tonopah Conservation District to provide a report on her experience, which actually affected the route she would take in her career.

“It led her to focusing her college major on environmental studies,” Wichman said enthusiastically. “It’s a great program for young people to learn about the world around them.”

The conservation district’s meetings are hosted at least every three months and sometimes more often, depending on the need. All meetings are open to the public.

“Everybody is welcome,” Wichman said, encouraging residents to head out and learn all about what the conservation district is currently doing.

Updates on the conservation district’s schedules are available via nyecounty.net

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes