Awards galore handed out at annual banquet
Butler Rotary, Butler County Conservation District and the Butler Extension sponsored the annual Farm City Banquet at Butler County Community College March 16.
Annual honors were bestowed at the gathering.
The 41st annual Bullshipper's Award was presented to Harold Foertsch of Jefferson Township.
The Bullshipper Award recognizes a person who works to improve agricultural and community relations.
Foertsch owns and operates a potato farm and has volunteered for 28 years at the Butler County Farm Show.He heads the 4-H Livestock Committee and has also hosted the annual farm tour twice.The Conservation District presented Richard Stuchal of Slippery Rock with the Cooperator Farmer of the Year Award.Stuchal and his wife, Linda, own 163 acres but farm a total of 524 acres.The Stuchals' dairy farm is in Mercer Township near Harrisville and they employ numerous conservation practices while participating in the Farmland Preservation Program.
Among the practices they use are no-till, crop rotation, contour strip cropping while subsurface drains have been installed.Camp Lutherlyn received the Educator of the Year Award.The Environmental Education Center at Camp Lutherlyn provides services to hundreds of campers each year. Students also visit the center on field trips.The Lutherlyn environmental education program involves exploring the camp's 640 acres of forests, wetlands, meadows and more. It was also the site of the state's first straw bale house.The camp uses the LEEPfrog newsletter to educate the public about its programs.
Todd Garcia-Bish is the director of environmental education.Jerald Hertzog of Butler received the Conservation Youth Award for his work on the Venango Trail as a Boy Scout.Jerald, who belongs to Troop 14, also works each year at the Youth Field Day for the Butler City Hunting and Fishing Club.His Eagle Scout project involved the portion of the Venango Trail that travels through Camp Lutherlyn.Bob Beran was honored as the Conservationist of the Year. Beran, owner of Beran Environmental Services near Boyers, was recognized for numerous abandoned mine discharge treatment projects as well as other work.
Discharge treatment projects in the county he has worked on include Goff Station, Erico Bridge, DeSale and the Jennings Environmental Center treatment system.He has also worked on dam removals at Alameda and Harmony Junction.He is a member of the Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition, Butler County Environmental advisory board and has served as a Marion Township supervisor.The speaker for the evening was Tom Palchak who presented the program "The History of the Penn State Creamery from 1865 to the Present."Ron Fodor is district manager of the Butler County Conservation District.
