O'Riley Hosts Backyard Conservation Conference

The Adams County Backyard Conservation Team, led by Sheila O’Riley, state secretary in Corning, hosted 150 guests and friends at their seventh annual Backyard Conservation Conference held March 29 in Lenox. It featured exhibits, breakout learning sessions and keynote speakers Eileen Robb, co-host of Gardening Today on WHO Radio and Jim Pease, PhD., Iowa State University Extension wildlife specialist and associate professor.  

Among the Earth Team volunteer conference presenters were three NRCS staff members: John Paulin, coordinator at the Prairie Rivers RC&D office in Ames; Jennifer Dubendorf, state Earth Team coordinator; and Dick Tremain, public affairs specialist. O’Riley said Paulin’s landscaping techniques and Dubendorf’s Hostas growing sessions were very popular. 

Adams County District Conservationist Rick Sprague said, “Each year our annual backyard conservation conference gets bigger thanks to hard working Earth Team volunteers and the great Adams County field office staff of John Klein, Cynthia Dobrovolny and Sheila O’Riley. That’s good because we’ve found promoting backyard conservation in our cities is a wonderful way of reinforcing our conservation message to rural landowners. As a team, we like to put conservation practices wherever they are needed.”