Pacific Northwest Man Named Top NRCS Volunteer
Pacific Northwest Man Named Top NRCS Volunteer
I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.
A Washington man has been named USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) top volunteer for 2012. Tim Rinehart received NRCS’ National Earth Team Individual Volunteer Award.
Earth Team is a program which partners volunteers with NRCS employees to help conserve, maintain and improve natural resources and the environment.
Rinehart, who graduated from high school last spring, was nominated by Sergio Paredes, Resource Conservationist with the NRCS. He shares that Rinehart is interested in pursuing a career in ag-engineering and that his more than 200 hours of volunteering helped to give Rinehart a jumpstart on what to expect before beginning his college courses at Columbia Basin Community College last fall.
Paredes: “He got a good feeling for what ag engineering is all about. He learned some skills. He learned how to survey --getting out and getting surveys out in the field. He got a good start.”
Rinehart assisted staff in the Goldendale Field Office with grass stand density studies, he developed orthographic and topographic maps for conservation contracts, and he conducted surveys, drawings and designs for a livestock water facility.
Nationally, volunteers donated 435,653 hours of service to NRCS worth $9.3 million. Since being formed in 1985, over a half-million Earth Team volunteers have donated $336 million worth of time to help NRCS with its conservation mission.
I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
Additional information on the Earth Team Volunteer Program is available online at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/people/volunteers or by calling (toll-free) 888-526-3227.
