Scandia’s Bruce Swenson will be up for a state award at the Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts in December. 

(Photo submitted)

Bruce Swenson will be honored for his conservation work in Washington County at the 72nd annual convention of the Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts (MASWCD) in St. Paul, Dec. 7-9.

Swenson was nominated as the Outstanding Conservationist to represent Washington County in recognition of his continued interest in applying conservation measures on his land.

The Scandia resident has kept soil and water conservation principles in the forefront of his activities, through a change from dairy farming to row-crop agriculture to conservation development. Fifty-two years ago, Swenson planted tree seedlings from the Washington SWCD for a FFA project to control erosion created by cow tracks on his family’s farm. When he became the third generation to farm the land, he continued to work with the SWCD, installing grassed waterways and a waste management system.

Eventually, part of the land was subdivided, but as a conservation development that preserved some land for perpetual agriculture and some for open space. He installed infiltration areas to manage stormwater runoff and restored two wetland basins to their natural hydrology, under the Wetland Conservation Act’s wetland banking program, to contribute towards improved water quality of Goose Lake.

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