Houin named state Caring for Our Watersheds finalist for 2nd year in a row

Most high school students have enough on their plates as they juggle school and extra-curricular activities. Writing and submitting a proposal on their own on how to improve the health of their local watershed is not normally at the top of their to-do list, but that’s exactly what West Holmes junior Garrett Houin did, and now he’s been named one of the state’s top-ten finalists in the Caring for Our Watersheds competition.

Houin worked with Ashland Soil and Water Conservation District Conservation Specialist Katie Eikleberry to develop a proposal that establish a voluntary conservation stewardship certification process for Ashland County farmers. The cornerstone of his proposal is the use of the Fieldprint accelerator—a precision conservation model that measures seven metrics of sustainability and compares those numbers against state and national benchmarks.

“My dad works in precision agriculture, and my mom works for Ashland Soil and Water, so we have a lot of very nerdy conversations in our house about how precision agriculture can be an important tool to address water quality concerns,” Houin said. ”Last year I developed a proposal on implementing precision conservation tools in the Mohican River watershed and was fortunate enough to win the state competition. This year I wanted to take my project to the next level and develop a program that would work for all farmers in the watershed, not just just crop producers.”

In his research and work with White, Houin discovered that nutrient runoff from farm fields and bacteria from failing septic systems and livestock manure are the biggest threats to water quality in the main stem of the Mohican River watershed, where he lives in Holmes County.

As a result, his proposal included a voluntary conservation certification program that would reward and recognize farmers for their voluntary conservation efforts. The conservation stewardship has three levels: a silver level for producers who choose to participate in any of the SWCD of Natural Resource Conservation Service, a gold level for producers who work with SWCD staff to assess their farm’s sustainability, and a platinum level for producers who show a year-over-year improvement in their sustainability scores as measured their the Fieldprint calculator.

“The Fieldprint calculator scores farms based on seven sustainability measures: biodiversity, energy use, greenhouses gases, land use, soil carbon, soil conservation and water quality,” said Houin. “I think that makes the calculator a valuable tool because there is no one measure of sustainability.”

As a state finalist, Houin received $1,000 for Ashland SWCD to implement his proposal. This funds were used for a mailing to farmers across Ashland County as well as the purchase of signs producers can display on their farms as recognition for their conservation stewardship..

“This tool is a great opportunity for producers to use an objective measurement to see how their on-farm conservation management stacks up against other producers on a state and national level” Houin said. “In farming, there are not a lot of opportunities for that type of objective measurement to compare their conservation efforts and sustainability against other farms. That type of insight can lead to taking a fresh look at your operation and identify areas you might not have thought of before to make changes.”

  Houin will compete in the state finals for the Caring for Our Watersheds competition this Saturday, April 30 at the Cincinnati Zoo. More information on the Caring for Our Watersheds program can be found at caringforourwatersheds.com.