STAR creator thanks SWCDs for work in promoting conservation

Steve Stierwalt, who serves with the Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District, spoke during Soil Health Week’s The Art and Science of Soil Health Advocacy in Action Day Thursday March 7, 2024 at the Illinois State Capitol.

Stierwalt is one of the farmers who wondered how to encourage neighbors to prevent nutrient runoff from fields and improve soil health, leading to the creation of STAR (Saving Tomorrow’s Agriculture Resources). Illinois’ STAR initiative is largely driven by the goals outlined in the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy developed by the Illinois Department of Agriculture and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. For more background information read about the Creation of STAR, STAR farmer perspectives, and STAR conservation goals on AIMillinois.org.

 

Some highlights of Steve Stierwalt’s speech: Well, thank you so much … what a great time it is to be a conservationist. It really is.

(Some of us have been with conservation 27 years) working with districts. And never in that time has there been such an opportunity to really make a difference in conservation. The work that we’re getting from the State of Illinois, the support that we’re getting from the federal government, and every industry and government at every level … recognizes that (with) generations growing up now … conservation, soil health conservation, is not an option, it is expected. And so everyone is trying how to figure out how to … respond to that demand.

… I do remember when I was a young guy. I loved to plow  … the smell of the soil and stuff like that. It was great. But I do also remember I wondered why the fencerows got higher. … I thought, well, that grass must be catching the dirt, you know. But no, it was the field getting lower.

… I had a great opportunity … to go to school at the University of Illinois in agriculture, and there was no talk about soil health. We did not understand at that time. We were gonna save the world with putting on more fertilizer, you know, we were producing for the world. … I’ve got three kids and nine grandkids … What are we leaving for our next generations? Are we leaving in better shape … than we found it?

The farm that I grew up on, a tenant farm, was owned by a lawyer from New York … he lived on Park Avenue, house in Connecticut, but he would come out every year and walk the fields. He cared. And I thought, why does this New York lawyer with all this money, why does he care? But he got it, you know, this is our future, and … it really got me thinking about conservation from an early age.

The STAR program is designed to help try to get us to that point. It’s designed for local people to make local decisions about their local resource concern. And we’ve looked at a lot of things all across the country, and nothing is locally driven like STAR. And so, we started this in (the Champaign County Soil & Water) Conservation District. It went statewide and … now we have four states and bringing in more on – four more western states. So, there’s an interest what we started here in Illinois … it’s been very humbling for me and, and I appreciate all the support. So, thank you very much.