District Blogs

Early this year in March, Butler SWCD was awarded an Ohio Environmental Education Fund (OEEF) Mini Grant to purchase a drone to kick start our Aerial Imagery Conservation Education program. This program will utilize drones, also known as small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to educate landowners and farmers on the natural resource concerns found on their property. In addition, it will provide hands-on educational opportunities for children at events to experience technology

With above average rainfall so far this year, many people are experiencing a greater volume of stormwater runoff than they have ever seen before. Things were especially bad when the ground was still frozen and vegetation was dormant early this year. Our office has had more drainage complaints than normal so we have been very busy. The most common urban complaints are yard flooding, sump pumps causing erosion, and streambank erosion. We can assist and help answer questions tha

Technology in agriculture is expanding at a rapid pace. Sub inch accuracy has been achieved with advanced guidance systems, spray...

We are taught growing up that water is blue, but some rivers are black, brown, emerald blue, green, or even blue-green. So what gives these rivers their colors? First we need to understand what color is. Natural light is actually made up of a number of different colors associated with different wave lengths within the light spectrum. Think of the multiple colors of light when refracted by a prism. The color we associate with anything is the range of light waves that is refle

Many of us love to encourage birds to our gardens. One of the best ways of doing this is to provide a vast assortment of native plants. Of course, many of us supplement this with bird feeders. We get excited to fill the feeders and watch out feathered friends visit them, but we often neglect the most important thing, to keep your bird feeders clean to avoid the spread of disease. Mycoplasmal conjunctivitis Biologists have noticed birds called house finches with swollen, crus

If you are thinking about what you can plant in your yard and garden this Spring, please be careful with your plant selection due to invasiv

Conservation tillage is a practice that sizes residue for breakdown, minimizes soil disturbance and increases organic matter. Through...

Did you know that in the state of Ohio over 30% of dams are classified as high-hazard? High hazard dams are dams that, according to FEMA, are “...based on the probable loss of human life and the potential for economic losses, environmental damage, and/or disruption to lifelines caused by failure of mis-operation of a dam or its appurtenances.” Placing dam on the high hazard list doesn’t mean that it is necessarily in danger of failing, it simply means that there could be cat

Are you interested in water quality? If so, the Butler County Stream Team may interest you. This is a group of citizen scientists that collect water samples from rivers and streams around the county each month. They test these samples for bacteria, nutrients, and more. Stream Team is having their annual breakfast, training, and information sharing event in February. It is Sat, Feb 10 at 9 am. This is held at the Butler County Engineers Office, next the Fairgrounds on Rt 4 in