According to Warren County Soil and Water Resource Conservationist Shawnee Sheehan, the request to increase funding for Conservation Districts across the state of Illinois was shot down in Springfield, along with funding to another program being redirected in the coming Fiscal Year:
“Where we stand right now, our request to increase our funding for districts across the state of Illinois was shot down in Springfield. We remain at that $4.5 million, which is down from the $8.5 million that we had a few years ago through those 97 districts,” informs Sheehan.
“Then our program monies for the Partners for Conservation, in the past years we have been given an allotment per district of money to put things in like waterways and great stabilization structure basin series; we have had good success here in Warren County with that. Moving into the next Fiscal Year, right now we have so much money allocated to a couple of those projects, but then following those payments, all of the Partners for Conservation money has been shifted over to I-COVER for the next Fiscal Year; looks like potentially the next three Fiscal Years. That is the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s (IDOA) cover crop program where one individual from each county was selected to put in cover crops. Maybe in a couple of years we will get some program money back to some structural practices out on the field, but for right now it is just going to be cover crops,” Sheehan adds.
Meanwhile, Sheehan reports the 2026 Annual Meeting for the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District will be on Tuesday, August 18th beginning at 5 pm in the new Fair Building at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Roseville.
