Coconino Natural Resource Conservation District

It took a manmade disaster in the Great Plains called the “Dust Bowl” to awaken the nation regarding concerns over natural resource management on private lands. In 1935, Congress moved to pass the “Soil Conservation Act” (Public Law 46) which created the “Soil Conservation Service”, known today as the “Natural Resource Conservation Service” or NRCS. By 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevel

t had sent all of the State’s a pattern law which they individually began to adopt by passing enabling legislation. These actions provided authority for to establish locally governed conservation districts. In 1941 the Arizona legislature passed the “Soil Conservation District Enabling Act” which restricted eight original districts to cropland, it was later amended in 1954 to include all lands in the State. COCONINO NRCD HISTORY
In 1972, the state's conservation districts were changed from “Soil Conservation Districts” to “Natural Resource Conservation District (NRCD). The “Coconino SCD” then became the “Coconino NRCD”. The original “Coconino Soil Conservation District” was created in December 1965 with the combination of two other SCDs. These were the “San Francisco Peaks SCD” (formed on February 27, 1942 and the “Sitgreaves Mountain SCD” (formed on June 13, 1946). Today, Arizona has 32 Natural Resource Conservation Districts administered by the State Land Department NRCD Program and 10 Natural Resource Conservation Districts authorized under federal tribal law.