Lorain Soil & Water Conservation District

09/04/2026

Birds & insects need your yard to be messy.

09/03/2026

Oh boy! Head out to Schlechter Brothers Country Harvest soon!

09/03/2026

It's happening! Join the Black River AOC Advisory Committee at Lakeview Park on September 16th at 5pm to discuss the delisting report! 🤩

The remediation of the Black River in Lorain County is nearing an end. Story in comments.

09/02/2026

You are invited to Lakeview Beach's Sunset Terrace on September 16th from 5-6:30. Ohio Lake Erie Commission staff and local leaders will walk through the Draft Delisting Report, answer questions from residents and local partners, and listen to comments. Written comments can be submitted through Oct. 3rd by using this link: Proposed Delisting of Black River Area of Concern https://ohioepa.commentinput.com/?id=VAQZTJiRp

https://www.blackriveraoc.com/

Located west of Cleveland in Northern Ohio, the Black River watershed drains into Lake Erie near the city of Lorain. The Black River was formerly the only river system in Ohio where the entire watershed was designated as an Area of Concern.

09/02/2026

Rathlin Soils is doing amazing work helping divert food away from landfills. Did you know the leftover produce from the fair (that does not get donated to WellHelp) went straight to Rathlin to become nutrient-laden soil & compost? The soil you buy from them could be from your own vegetables! How cool is that?

Did You Know?

About 16% of all landfilled material is food. That's roughly 400 pounds per person each year! In landfills, organic matter breaks down without oxygen, producing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. returns these valuable nutrients and minerals to our soils.

09/01/2026

Wendell Berry's most famous verses on farming and agriculture center on our deep connection to the earth, the ethics of food, and the role of the farmer as a steward.

The word “verse” has an agricultural past: it comes from the Latin word for “furrowing” or “turning up the soil.” Language, then, is a field ready for the plow; a poem is the careful turning up of that field. A poem must break up the dry outer crush of assumptions to expose the fertile soil underneath.

Wendell Berry is a well-known essayist and novelist, a life-long farmer, and a great champion of the particular and human against impersonal, mechanized social and economic forces. He is also a masterful poet. For over sixty years, Berry has turned to verse to explore the rhythms and patterns that make up human life.

Wendell Berry passed away yesterday at age 92. Join us in celebrating him by sharing some of your favorite verses of his in the comments.

08/31/2026

Wow! Look at this beauty in Amherst!

MONSTER of a Silver Maple 🍁 (Acer saccharinum) in the Amherst area of Lorain County.... For a yard tree, it's actually a really nice example.
🌳🇺🇲🌳💪🌳👀🌳🍁🌳

What a TANK at over 280" in circumference, over 77' tall, with a 115' average crown spread...

08/29/2026

Another National Association of Conservation Districts poster contest winner stopped by! Addison Beal is our first place winner in the 10th-12th grade category. Her poster is so intricately beautiful!

08/28/2026

Help improve the Value of Conservation Programs for Midwestern Farmers by taking the Midwest Farm Conservation Survey from the USDA & The Pollinator Partnership: https://form.jotform.com/261315779919067

If you are familiar with or have participated in the CRP program or other Farm Bill Programs, they want to hear from you!

To qualify for this survey, you must currently own and/or manage farmland in one of the following states: Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, or Ohio. Please complete the survey in one sitting and take the survey only once. It takes about 10 minutes to complete.

Your participation is voluntary and will make a huge difference for the Midwest’s leadership in agriculture. Your responses will not identify you individually as results will be aggregated and anonymized.

Take the survey here: https://form.jotform.com/261315779919067

Learn more about the Farm Bill's impact in Ohio here: https://ofbf.org/2026/01/21/what-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-means-for-ohio-agriculture/

Overall, $65.6 billion from this aid package is projected to increase agriculture-focused spending over the next decade.

08/27/2026

The history of our (very) old friend: Big Rock at Findley State Park

This is Findley State Park’s friend, BIG ROCK!

Big Rock has been a mainstay of our campground for generations. Countless photos of campers have been taken with Big Rock over the decades.
Big Rock grew up well to the north of Ohio in what would become Canada before moving to our area a very long time ago.
At least 11 to 14 thousand years ago, give or take a few thousand years.
We know that Big Rock is from Canada because it is made of Granite that was formed by molten rock called magma cooling underground in Canada.
Tens of thousands of years ago, the latest of the glaciers of the Ice Age moved over our area due to the incredible weight of snow and ice built up to 5 miles thick.
When ice accumulates to a thickness of about 160 feet, it starts to bend and move downhill. Since the glaciers that covered our area were MILES thick, everything was “downhill”.
As the glaciers moved south from Canada, the tremendous amounts of energy generated often broke of huge chunks of rock in its path.
These rocks, like Big Rock, were pushed and tumbled for tens of thousands of years, wearing down the edges and smoothing the surfaces.
Because there are no granite rock layers that are native to our area, and we know that the glaciers moved Big Rock and others to our area, Big Rock is considered a Glacial Erratic.
So, just how “BIG” is Big Rock?
I took some quick measurements and estimate Big Rock to be about 221 cubic feet of granite.
Most granite weighs about 165 pounds per cubic foot.
After all the math, I figure Big Rock weighs in at around 18.2 tons.

Naturalist Wiz

Share your photo of Big Rock in the comments.
We love to see your images of Big Rock.

Further reading:
https://www.clevelandmetroparks.com/parks/education/education-programs/virtual-learning/online-nature-center/activities/lessons/ice-age-ohio-hike #:~:text=In%20Ohio%2C%20many%20of%20our,and%20weighing%20over%202%2C000%20pounds
https://ohiodnr.gov/static/documents/geology/OGN_1984_n3Winter.pdf
https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/safety-conservation/about-ODNR/geologic-survey/glacial-geology/evidence-of-glaciers
https://stoneyard.com/calculators/stone-slab-weight/