Award-Winning Conservation

Matt Steiman and Jenn Halpin receive award plaque

Matt Steiman and Jenn Halpin receive the Watershed Protection Award. Photo courtesy Cumberland County Conservation District.

Watershed Protection a Priority

by Maureen Moroz ’19

The Cumberland County Conservation District has awarded its 2017 Watershed Protection Award to Dickinson's College Farm, under the leadership of farm managers Jenn Halpin and Matt Steiman. The award is given to organizations or individuals who promoted the protection of a particular watershed through a coordinated land and water resource approach.

“The College Farm has implemented a series of natural resource conservation measures over the last 10 years, for which we are grateful and honored to be recognized,” said Halpin, the farm’s director. In addition to crop rotation, waste composting and rotational grazing, the farm also constructed a riparian buffer along the banks of the Yellow Breeches Creek, which protects the stream from potentially harmful water runoff.

The farm partnered with Dickinson’s Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM) to plant 380 trees and shrubs over three years. Dickinson students worked on the project with governmental entities, nonprofits, professors and arborists to build the buffer. “It is a wonderful case study of collaboration, civic engagement and the connection between agriculture and water quality,” said ALLARM Director Julie Vastine '03.

“Jenn and Matt’s dedication to agriculture sustainability and environmental stewardship is very impressive,” said Brady Seeley, conservation district Chesapeake Bay technician. “It is the exact reason why they were selected to receive the Watershed Protection Award.”

The College Farm is a 60-acre, USDA-certified organic operation which provides produce to the college dining hall and more than 150 members and their families who are part of a Campus Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

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Published September 8, 2017