By 



1G. (Slim) 



Slattery 



First and most sincerely, my thanks and appre- 

 ciation for allowing me the high honor of serving 

 as president of MACD for the com-ng year. 

 Believe me I will do my utmost to continue the 

 tremendous job done by outgoing President 

 Bob Anderson . we all owe him a tremendous 

 ovation of appreciation! 



Second, to our convention host district — 

 Custer County Conservation District, the Miles 

 City Chamber of Commerce, our speakers and 

 panelists, the management of Red Rock Village 

 and all of you who attended the convention 

 and made it the success it was. please know your 

 contribution to the continued progress of MACD 

 is deeply appreciated On behalf of all Montanans 

 interested in a better Montana for our future 

 generations, my heartfelt thanks 



Finally, please appreciate that our work is 

 far from done . and this is most definitely not 

 the time to roll down our sleeves and relax 

 Much has been done in the name of a better 

 environment through conservation, but much 

 remains to be done' 



"Awareness Leads to Action" was the theme of 

 our 1 972 convention We ARE aware and we 

 have made significant progress in the past two 

 years in making the layman public similarly 

 aware Now. it is time for action! 



Gov Tom Judge made a strong plea in sup- 

 port of our programs in his State of the State 

 address (see Page 2) Sens Mike Mansfield 

 and Lee Metcalf and Congressmen John Melcher 

 and Richard Shoup are voicing similar pleas m 

 the U S Congress But neither the Legislature 

 nor the Congress can do it alone. They must 

 have the grassroots support that only we can 

 provide 



And if you don 't think the time is NOW. then 

 you haven t been reading the newspapers 

 lately . ' 



AS 1972 CAME TO A CLOSE, at least two meetings proved of vital interest to 

 Montana conservationists: the seven public hearings held throughout Montana for 

 the proposed "Montana Water Use Act." as submitted by the Water Law Advisory 

 Council and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation 

 (Gary Wicks, director of the DNRC. is shown at right as he explains provisions of 

 the proposed legislation at a hearing in Great Falls), and the Sediment Control 

 Conference held in Helena. Dec. 15. to acquaint Montana leadership groups with 

 existing and planned programs in the area of erosion prevention and sediment 

 control (A. G. Slattery and Jeanne Baluka. both of MACD. and Ave Linford. Mon- 

 tana Conservationist and president of the Soil Conservation Society of America, 

 are shown below, l-r, during the daylong sessions at Helena). For comment on the 

 meetings, see the editorial on the back page of this issue of TREASURE ACRES. 



Late in December the 

 nation's conservation dis- 

 trict cooperators saw the 

 USDA slice almost a quar- 

 ter of a billion dollars from 

 federal funding for conser- 

 vation. 



The department an- 

 nounced the cancellation 

 of further aid under the 

 Rural Environmental Assis- 

 tance Program (REAP) and 

 the new Water Bank Pro- 

 gram. Congress had auth- 

 orized a combined total of 

 $235.5 million for the two 

 programs — $225.5 million 

 for REAP. 



MACD Convention (continued from Page 2) 



variety of beneficial uses. 



MACD President Robert 

 Anderson proposed a new dues 

 structure for the state's conser- 

 vation districts in his annual 

 report— a proposal later adopted 

 by the convention through 

 resolution (details on the dues 

 structure will be mailed directly 

 to the districts) and pointed 

 out that the increasing involve- 

 nnent of the districts and MACD 

 in environmental problems nec- 

 essitates a "more realistic 

 funding base" for both local 

 and state-level conservation 

 activity. 



Again, at the 1 972 conven- 

 tion, the state-level high school 



r-\ 



selected as a Youth Board of 

 Supervisors to meet regularly 

 with the district board of super- 

 visors and discuss proposed 

 conservation programs. 



GALLATIN VALLEY-Livestock waste 

 disposal facilities have been designed and 

 constructed or started for Don Bos, 

 Jotin Heidma, John R Van Dyke. Tom 

 Holdworth. Flikkema Ranches, Ray Van 

 Dyke, Milo Todd and Rick Batchelder 



HEADWA TERS RC&D has been selec- 

 ted by USDA to be funded at the federal 

 level Irving (Bud} Nelson has been named 

 coordinator and will have an office in 

 Butte Sponsors of the project are the 

 conservation districts and county commis- 

 sioners from Silver Bow. Deer Lodge, 

 Powell. Beaverhead. tVladison and Jeffer- 

 son counties in southwestern f^ontana 

 Through the RC&D program. USDA can 

 accelerate technical and financial assis- 

 tance. 



YELLOWSTONE-ln response to a 

 letter from Die Ueland, supervisors re- 

 ported they are working with the Laurel 

 City-County Planning Board and with 

 the group working on the Blue Creek 

 disposal problem Leo Pipal also reported 

 he has been working with Barry O'Leary 

 on gravel and barrow pits 



LEWIS AND CLARK-Ed Wilcox re- 

 ported on trees available from the State 

 Forestry Nursery for shelterbelts, wind 

 and noise barriers through the SOS and 

 Extension offices He said that 47 orders 

 for over 1 3,000 trees have been ordered 

 for spring delivery thus far 



— Project contract on the Tee Bar ranch 

 state land has been awarded to Stan 

 Stalling. 



— The district is working with the State 

 Planning Board to put soils information 

 into the computer with the hope that we 

 can arrive at hydrological groupings for 

 density planning for urban growth 



— Craig Cemetery Association has 

 requested our assistance in planning an 



irrigation system We are designing a 

 lagoon system for the Milford Colony. 



GREEN MOUNTAIN- fUr Jakub passed 

 out copies of the proposed "f^ontana 

 Forest Practices Act" and. with slides, 

 a talk and a question-and-answer session, 

 explained the proposed act 



BRUCE MALCOLM has 

 been named by supervisors 

 of the Park County Conser- 

 vation District as program 

 leader for the new range- 

 land resource program. 



Lincoln County Conservation 

 District have re-elected their 

 present officers — Chet Appe- 

 land, chairman; Dale Purdy, 

 vice chairman and Howard 

 f arson^, treasurer. 



speech contest proved a high- 

 light activity. Following district 

 and area contests, starting last 

 spring, six finalists competed 

 for S500 in scholarships pro- 

 vided by Montana Associated 

 Utilities, statewide association 

 of rural electric cooperatives. 

 First-place winner of $250 was 

 Holly Forrester of Beaverhead 

 County High School, followed 

 by Erick Erickson, a SI 50 

 scholarship winner from Billings 

 West High School, and Inez 

 Morrison, SI 00 winner from 

 Sidney High School Other area 

 contestants were Dan Seneca), 

 Powell High School, Dan Mur- 

 nion, Garfield County High 

 School and Shelley Gebhardt, 

 Simms High School. 



Newsletter contest winners 

 were Cascade County, first, 

 Chouteau County, second, and 

 Big Sandy and Big Horn 

 County, tie for third. 



Supervisor awards for service 

 were presented to Don Roth, 

 Missoula County Conservation 

 District, for 25 years of dis- 

 trict-level service to conser- 

 vation, as well as five awards 

 for 20 years of service, six 

 awards for 1 5 years and 1 4 for 

 1 years (see Page 3 pictures). 



MACD officers elected for 

 1 972-73 include A. G. Slattery, 

 president: Charles Lane, vice 

 president; Mrs Oscar Hippe, 

 treasurer, and Jeanne Baluka, 

 secretary Ladies auxiliary 

 officers are Mrs Harry Swank, 

 president, Mrs. Don Naegli, 

 vice president, and Mrs. Duane 

 Christoffersen, secretary- 

 treasurer. 



