Area conservation districts receive $5.5 million renewal

With a renewed grant and six-fold increase of employees in the last five years, the Palouse Conservation District has grown and looks to sustain its current level.

Based in Pullman, one of four conservation districts in Whitman County, the non-regulatory agencies work with landowners to help comply with Washington State Department of Ecology rules.

Each county in Washington has at least one conservation district, most with one to two. Whitman County, which founded the first conservation district in the state in 1940, has four, because of the varied micro climates and geography of the area.

It...