On Tuesday, October 22, the West Virginia Association of Conservation Districts held its annual awards banquet at Days Inn in Flatwoods. At this event, the Elk Conservation District received the Excellence in Conservation Communication Award. This was the first time that the district earned the award.
With many conservation districts utilizing social media, radio and newspaper promotions, the infamous Tik Tok, and other digital media sources, the awards committee felt that this type of outreach effort should be recognized. This award requires the conservation district to submit a portfolio of outreach materials. A judging panel reviews the entries and analyzes the quality and content of the outreach materials.
A member of the judging panel summed it up: “The winning district offers a strong variety of local newspaper outreach, Facebook posts, Instagram reels, and printed items of interest to their audience. The variety of communications content also impresses informing cooperators about equipment rentals, tree sales and items available for sale at the district office, drought conditions and Emergency Watershed Protection response in the district, educational outreach to students, and even occasions to celebrate. As an example, their impressive outreach effort used to draw guests to the educational dinner at Nettles Equipment in Servia back in February, undoubtedly helped to draw over 180 people to attend. Their reels also prove that pictures are worth a thousand words. For example, the action in the pollinator planting reel, even without spoken audio, shows the viewer a lot.”
The Elk Conservation District office is located on Airport Road in Sutton, West Virginia and serves Braxton, Clay, Nicholas and Webster Counties. The ECD Board of Supervisors consists of Linda Brown, Debbie Hamric, Keyota Jarvis, Jeremy Cantrell, Larry Greynolds, John Pitsenbarger, Mike Smalley and Clark Mollohan.