Drought, AIS Inspectors, Fire Danger talk with Steve Hughes of ACSWCD

By Paul Vold kkin@rjbroadcasting.com (8/25/21)

(Aitkin, MN) — The long summer and the ever-growing drought continues to shape some of the daily tasks for the Aitkin County Soil & Water Conservation District.

In our monthly conversation with District manager Steve Hughes took a look at the historical context of the drought and significantly low levels of precipitation this year.

The heat, mixed with the lack of precipitation this year, has also had a dramatic effect on the lakes and rivers.

Hughes and Conservation District are working on projects with the end of the summer drawing near and their Aquatic Invasive Species Inspectors finishing their season of work.

Another project that has been seeing increased attention is the certification of gravel pits.

The dry conditions have also affected the turning of the leaves and put trees onto potential life support.

Aitkin County Soil & Water Conservation District Manager Steve Hughes also talked about fire danger, starry stonewort and other AIS inspections, and more with our full conversation here: