The Cohn Creek Community Watershed Council held its first ever conservation day at the Cohn Valley Veterans Memorial Park last weekend. The event was designed to get the word out about the work the council has been doing, but also to draw people in and make them aware of why conservation work in the local watersheds affects everyone. Nancy Weddeweck is the president of the council. Tucker Greteback is the vice president. They spoke with us at the event talked about where the idea for the event came from and the work they have been doing. We just needed a way that we could get everybody involved and there's no better way than then smoking a hog, fishing poles for the kids and bringing everybody in that has an interest that we've got UW Madison here. They've spent a ton of time here in the last two years, three years. We've got seed savers, we've got companies like neutral all the way from Oregon. You know and they all have things that people can use whether you're farming or not. It's all valuable information that makes this whole thing work together. The Cohn Creek Watershed Council grew out of what is known in Wisconsin as a producer led watershed group. That was formed about two years ago. There are currently about 43 of the groups across the state and there are three right here in Vernon County. The Tender Creek Watershed Council has been operating since about 2016. The Cohn Creek Group and the Badax Watershed stewards followed up in the last couple of years to get started as a group. The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection requires at least five farmers within the same watershed to join and at least one collaborator, either a county land conservation office, UW Division of Extension or Wisconsin DNR or a nonprofit organization. Once qualified, the groups are eligible for up to $40,000 in funding from the state. The Cohn Creek Group has grown even beyond a producer led watershed group to include wider community and last year the group incorporated as a nonprofit. Wedwig said they're working with other watershed groups and focusing on practices than have been part of the conservation tradition in this area for a long time. Sure, we have been meeting for our group for about the last year and a half and jointly with our watershed, other watershed councils over the course of I would say the last year. And the whole idea is to create awareness and revive a lot of those good sound conservation practices that have slipped away perhaps in some cases and the impetus for this whole thing was all the flooding that has been experienced in this area, you know, in over the last decade, particularly 2018. Wedwig and Greta Beck said they also made it a goal to include the entire community, not just those involved in agriculture. Absolutely, this is going to take everybody and there's something that everybody can do, you know, whether you're just a landowner or a business owner or you have a house in town. A lot of this is just about awareness. Yeah. Wedwig and Greta Beck said something as simple as raising the height of your lawnmower, letting your grass go a bit longer, can help hold more water back in every little bit helps. To find out more about the group or to get involved, you can look for them on their Facebook page or you can find them on the web at crunecreakwatershed.org.