Orders for our spring fish sale will be ready for pick up Friday, April 12th 2024 at 1:00pm at the USDA Service Center (1209 Bear Lane, Monticello). Fish will be bagged upon pick up for air and water quality during transportation. Important: If picking up catfish, please bring pond water in a 5-gallon bucket or tote with lid.
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Order forms for our 2024 spring fish sale are due April 5th! Please submit completed forms to the USDA Service Center in Monticello or by email to Julie.Chumbley@il.nacdnet.net or piattswcd@gmail.com
Fish pick up will be April 12th at 1209 Bear Lane, Monticello from 12:00-1:00pm
The Piatt County Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Directors meeting scheduled for February 21st, 2024 has been canceled due to scheduling conflicts. The next Board of Directors meeting will be held on March 20th, 2024 at 8am.
Stay tuned for exact dates and more information! Registration will be available in February.
The Envirothon program is an environmental and natural resource conservation problem-solving, teambuilding, and leadership experience and academic competition for high school students (grades 9-12 or ages 14-19), it combines classroom learning with hands-on field experiences focused around five major topics – Aquatics, Forestry, Soils, Wildlife and a Current Environmental Issue. Your five member teams rotate through five outdoor testing stations where they will get presentations from professionals in each topic, and their knowledge is evaluated and scored through written examination. We will be including the 5th category for 2024 which is “Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Future”.
Awards will be presented to the top two teams overall. The winning team, representing Dewitt, Ford, Logan, Macon, McLean, Moultrie, and Piatt Counties (Land Use Council #6), will be one of sixteen teams participating at the State of Illinois Competition. The State competition will be held on Wednesday, May 8th and Thursday, May 9th Monticello, Illinois at the 4H Camp and is a two day overnight competition students will again receive presentations, be tested on their knowledge and add a next level of building a presentation based on the 5th category topic to present before judges. The state winning team will represent Illinois at the National Envirothon in Hobart and William Smith Colleges Geneva, New York Dates: July 28 – August 3, 2024 which is North America’s largest high school environmental education competition featuring teams from across the United States, Canada, China, and Singapore competing for prizes and college scholarships. If you participate at your local level you should be prepared to move on and compete at the next level, your registration, housing and food is paid for at the State Leve. At the National Level should you get the opportunity to compete at that level, there is a stipend for travel as well as your registration, food and housing is paid for.
As an added bonus FFA teams also hold their State Environmental Competition along side the Illinois Envirothon. If your team is not the winning LUC team but is the top scoring FFA team you would be eligible to compete for one day at the State Competition to have your score included in the FFA scores sent to the Illinois FFA State Office to determine the Illinois FFA State Environmental winner.
More information about Envirothon and reference materials for the students to study can be accessed on the Illinois Envirothon web page listed here: www.illinoisenvirothon.org You can also visit the National Envirothon website to gain a bigger picture of this phenomenal event at https://envirothon.org/
If you have questions please feel free to email Sondra Baker (LUC 6 Envirothon Coordinator) at 217-935-2181 ext. 3 or your local Soil & Water Conservation District. We hope to see you in 2024!
The Piatt County Farm Bureau Foundation is hosting their 11th annual Cash Bash on Saturday, February 24th 2024 at the Monticello Community Building.
This year, all funds raised will be split between the Piatt County Farm Bureau Foundation and local Piatt County Fire Departments to equip them with grain bin rescue equipment – a crucial need for a rural area like ours.
The Farm Bureau Foundation is seeking sponsorships for their reverse raffle this year.
$100 – recognition at Cash Bash
$250 – recognition at Cash Bash and PCFB social media, two tickets to Cash Bash
$500 – premium recognition at Cash Bash and on PCFB social media, newspaper insert, two tickets to Cash Bash
In lieu of monetary donations, they are also accepting donation items for a live auction.
Tickets are available for $50 a piece – this includes your dinner for the evening as well as your ticket into the reverse raffle.
Doors and bar open at 5:30 pm
Dinner at 6:00 pm
Reverse raffle and live auction to follow
Please contact the Piatt County Farm Bureau office if interested in purchasing tickets.
If you should have any questions, please reach out to Sydnee Shafer, Manager of the Piatt County Farm Bureau at (217) 762-2128 or email piattcountyfb@gmail.com.
The first electronics recycling event is coming up at the end of this month! On January 31st, 2024 from 9:00 – 11:30 am (or until truck is full) the Piatt County SWCD will be collecting electronic items from Piatt County residents free* of charge for recycling.
*$25.00 fee for large consoles or projection TVs
No batteries. No ‘white goods‘: refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers, dishwashers, hot water heaters, etc.
Limit 10 items per vehicle. Limit 3 TVs or computer monitors per vehicle.
Visit the ‘Electronics Recycling’ tab under District Sales & Services above for more information and more recycling dates through the year.
The Soil and Water Conservation District is hosting a Plat Book photo contest!
Submit your best Piatt County countryside photo by March 31st, 2024 to Julie.Chumbley@il.nacdnet.net and Brianne.Gates@il.nacdnet.net.
The winner, selected by the Board of Directors at the April board meeting, will have their photo featured on the cover of the 2024 Plat Book. Photos 400 DPI or higher in PDF, TIFF, or JPEG preferred.