Funding Freeze Hobbles Farm Conservation

By Marc Heller

​The Trump administration’s freeze on grants and contracts is hitting rural Iowa especially hard, and a farm conservation group laid off nearly all of its staff last week after the flow of money from the Department of Agriculture stopped.

“I’m a one-man show right now,” said Dien Judge, executive director of the Conservation Districts of Iowa, after he was forced to lay off all but one — himself — of a staff of 39.

The association, a nonprofit organization that works with conservation districts throughout the state, has three major grants through the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service totaling slightly more than $12 million, Judge said.