Please ask your Illinois State Representative to commit $10.5 million in the FY25 budget for the Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) operations funds (find your Rep’s contact info).
The state of Illinois cannot afford to fall further behind neighboring states in the work of 97 locally-led SWCDs to keep our soil healthy and our water clean.
But that’s exactly what would happen if the Illinois House repeats the Illinois State Senate’s mistake of only allocating $4.5 million in the FY25 budget by slashing the budgets of Illinois’ 97 locally-led SWCDs.
Illinois is truly the heart of the nation, not only because we have the best soil to produce the breadbasket that sustains the nation, but because time and time again our people have uttered the importance of defending our state’s vital natural resources. “The wealth of Illinois is in her soil and her strength lies in its intelligent development” stated Andrew Sloan Draper, President of the University of Illinois (1898-1904). With the vital investments in the FY25 budget for the state’s Soil and Water Conservation, the 103rd General Assembly can showcase that it understands the importance we have as stewards of some of the best soil the Earth has to offer and is the foundation of the state’s true wealth.
Please stay the course and not return to pre-2000 funding levels for the state’s vital Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
