Gov. Kelly visits local farm to celebrate EPA grant

According to Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, the farm of Henry and Tracy Hill of rural Holton was the ideal place to celebrate the awarding of a $750,000 “Farmer To Farmer” grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for watershed protection.

“They’ve been living this for quite some time,” the governor said of the Hills, whose work in soil conservation has been honored in previous years.

Gov. Kelly was accompanied by several state and federal officials during her visit to the Hills’ farm on Wednesday, June 28 for a press conference to note the EPA grant award to KDHE, one of 11 organizations sharing a total of almost $11 million from the EPA’s Farmer To Farmer program, which promotes the development of soil and water conservation practices.

This particular grant, it was noted, will be used to support soil health, habitat, resilience and peer-to-peer information exchanges among farmers to improve water quality and improve Kansans’ health.

“Improving soil health and water quality in Kansas is critical for many reasons, but each of these reasons can be boiled down to one core responsibility we all share,” Kelly said. “We should always explore every possible initiative… for our kids, for our grandkids and for all future generations to come.”

(Photos and text by Brian Sanders)