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The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and the Indiana State Soil Conservation Board SSCB) announced that 16 soil and water conservation districts and one organization were awarded over $1.3 million in Clean Water Indiana competitive grant funding. This funding will support water quality improvements across the state.

"This funding is critical for our local soil and water conservation districts to assist farmers with bettering their water quality initiatives," said Lt. Gov. Beckwith, Indiana's Secretary of Agriculture. "This program touches every corner of the state and the improvements made will go a long way in ensuring Indiana remains a leader in soil conservation."

The Clean Water Indiana program is administered by the state’s soil conservation board. The program, led by the ISDA, provides financial assistance to landowners and conservation groups that are working to reduce runoff from non-point sources of water pollution, whether it’s on agricultural land, urban areas or eroding streambanks.

Once received, districts can use the funds to partner with other counties or address specific needs within their jurisdiction. Some examples include participating in a cost-share program, hiring staff, providing technical assistance, implementing cover crop incentive programs or increasing watershed capacity.

Clean Water Indiana (CWI) is managed by ISDA’s Division of Soil Conservation and funded by a portion of the state's cigarette tax. Projects can be up to three years in length and grantees could apply for any dollar amount that was necessary to complete the project. In addition to CWI funds, each grantee is required to produce a match for their project, which can be cash or in-kind. Projects requesting staffing were required to have a 25% match for that component, while all other project areas required a 50% match. Many Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD) will target producers not currently served by other conservation programs.

Below is the list of awardees, their project titles and overviews. $1,382,571 was awarded to 17 projects.

Washington County SWCD- $224,200
Crawford, Harrison, Jackson, and Washington counties will offer Clean Water Indiana funded cost-share opportunities to land users alongside educational opportunities and technical assistance protect soil health and water quality by reducing nutrient, sediment and pathogen runoff into surface & ground water.
This project provides financial and technical assistance for livestock, crop, and wildlife best management practices. Best management practices reduce sediment, nutrients and pathogens reaching waterways in runoff and limiting livestock access. Planting practices filter pollutants, increase biodiversity, decrease soil compaction, restore soil structure and provide continuous root systems which increase soil infiltration.

Delaware County SWCD - $3,000
This project will control invasive species in priority areas along the Cardinal Greenways.

Delaware County SWCD - $125,000
The funds will be used for staffing and support for the Delaware County Soil and Water Conservation District to hire a Conservation Resource Technician.

Greene County SWCD - $15,500
The Greene County SWCD will utilize this funding to purchase a no-till drill to assist landowners in implementing increased soil health, water quality and soil water holding capacity on properties located in Greene County. Landowners can utilize the drill to plant cover crops, assist in establishing new pastures, inter-seeding for pasture improvement, plant native grass for prairie establishment and plantings for pollinator habitats.

Jefferson County SWCD- $130,000
The project will promote soil health on pasture and hay land and improve water quality. Conservation practices will be installed that help improve forage and biomass quality, reduce soil erosion and compaction, reduce excessive nutrients and sediments in surface and ground waters and improve inadequate feed, forage and water. The funds will also promote and incentivize the use of cover crops.

Jefferson County SWCD - $30,650
The project funds will be used to purchase the Jefferson County SWCD a no-till drill to assist landowners in improving the quality of their soil and water resources.

Jennings County SWCD- $50,000
The Jennings County SWCD and the Ripley County SWCD will provide cost-share to private landowners within Jennings and Ripley counties to start or continue cover crop, forage and biomass planting, and installation of heavy use area protection practices.

Kosciusko County SWCD- $52,721
This funding will allow the district to undertake a large-scale soil health focused education event across the next 3 years (2025-2027) in addition to providing free soil samples to local producers. Led by the county-funded Soil Health Specialist, these events are structured as interactive meetings. They are designed to provide a roadmap for collaborative exploration into soil health, the soil food web, ecological risk of pest management strategies, and developing long-term solutions for regenerative ag systems.

Madison County SWCD - $120,000
The grant funds will hire a full-time Urban Conservationist for a three-year time frame from Jan. 2025 through Dec. 2027 for the Madison County SWCD. This funding would provide the necessary means to empower Madison County SWCD to build district capacity and engage in conservation partnership efforts. Additionally, the funds will assist in developing an accountable case with empirical information and numbers to provide to the Madison County Council and Madison County Commissioners in an effort to obtain a permanent county funded full-time position.

Marion County SWCD- $100,000
The funds will leverage Marion County SWCD's federal Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant to further the reach of their soil health program to ensure Indiana conservation planners beyond Marion County have the training and tools necessary to assist small farm practice implementation. These and other future training will help market Indiana's unique conservation tools nationally, and are striving to enter into a future multi-year agreement with NRCS to provide long term sustainability for the program beyond the timeframe of the proposed CWI grant
CWI 2025, paired with SARE, will allow the SWCD to deliver a high-quality program that addresses the needs of the district in delivering assistance to urban and small farms.

Morgan County SWCD - $60,000
Morgan County SWCD will utilize the funds to purchase a new seed drill. The funds will also be used to promote the use of the drill through a cost-share program, “Seeding for Soil Health”, for cover crops and native habitats that would benefit soil health and water quality in Morgan County.

Orange County SWCD - $125,000
The Clean Water Indiana funds will be used for cost-share program to increase conservation efforts and improve local water quality and soil health. The project, "Cultivating Clean Water, One Practice at a Time”, will allow and encourage local producers to expand on soil health and decrease nonpoint source pollutants entering waterways by reducing livestock run-off, stabilizing high-traffic livestock areas and increasing living cover within the project area.

Posey County SWCD- $84,000
Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick and Gibson Counties will continue to work together to encourage producers to plant cover crops addressing our local concerns of soil health and water quality. The partnering districts will add 4000 acres of cover crops. Special emphasis will be placed on education, highly erodible land (HEL), and farmers new to our cost-share program. The district cash-match will pay $5/acre to farmers new to our program, $5/acre for diversified seed mixes of three plus, incentives for planting green by offering an additional $5/acre and up to $250 for perches or nesting boxes for raptors to assist with rodent control.

Spencer County SWCD - $20,000
This project aims to reduce sediment and nutrient runoff in the pastures of Spencer County through promoting exclusionary livestock fencing for water quality, and prescribed grazing and rotational grazing for soil health and other pasture best management practices like cover crops.

The Nature Conservancy- $82,500
Announced by ISDA on Jan. 2, 2025, this project will incentivize farmers to utilize cover crops by reducing crop insurance premiums on 35,000 acres across 50 counties. The project will provide eligible participants with a $5/acre premium discount on the following year's crop insurance invoice for every acre of cover crop enrolled and verified in the program.

Wayne County SWCD - $75,000
The Wayne County SWCD will educate on the numerous soil health benefits of planting cover crops and the need for healthy, abundant pollinators by establishing pollinator habitats. The goal of the program, "Cover It, Wayne County", is to establish at least 20 new acres of pollinator plantings and an anticipated 2,300 acres in cover crops.

Wells County SWCD - $85,000
Wells and Huntington County SWCDs are partnering on a cost-share program for managing and removing invasive species and for seeding cover crops. The program will be open to private landowners, city, county and community parks. The goal of the program is to help educate citizens in the need to manage invasive species.

ABOUT ISDA
The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) reports to Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. Major responsibilities include advocacy for Indiana agriculture at the local, state and federal level, managing soil conservation programs, promoting economic development and agricultural innovation, serving as a regulatory ombudsman for agricultural businesses, and licensing grain firms throughout the state.

Response to

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

(19 February 2025)

LATEST DETECTION

County & Flock #: Washington 02
Flock Size: 19,388
Type of Operation: Commercial Turkey
Status: Quarantined
10km Control Area: Active (Portions of Washington and Scott counties in Indiana)
20km Surveillance Zone: Active (Portions of Washington, Clark, Jackson, and Scott counties in Indiana)

STATEWIDE SUMMARY

For details, including updated data and total premises affected since the ongoing incident began in 2022, visit the HPAI dashboard on BOAH's website.

BACKGROUND

The H5N1 influenza virus has continued to be active throughout parts of the United States. HPAI has been identified on more than 1300 premises in all 50 states since February 2022. Wild birds infected with HPAI have been found from coast to coast in various species, including waterfowl (ducks, swans, geese, gulls, etc.), raptors (hawks and eagles), as well as other common species (American robin, common raven, wild turkey). Many other mammalian species, including humans, dairy cattle and wildlife, have also been diagnosed with the virus.
The current, ongoing HPAI event is the United States’ largest animal health emergency in history.

RESPONSE

As part of existing avian influenza response plans, federal and state partners are working jointly on additional surveillance and testing in areas around the affected flocks. The United States has the strongest avian influenza surveillance program in the world, and USDA is actively working with its partners to look for the disease in commercial poultry operations, live bird markets and in migratory wild bird populations.

NON-COMMERCIAL FLOCK SURVEILLANCE: Testing of nearby flocks is important to verify the virus has not spread in the area. BOAH staff will be reaching out to flock owners within the surveillance zone to offer testing.

WILD BIRD SURVEILLANCE: USDA Wildlife Services and Indiana Department of Natural Resources are assisting with surveillance of wild birds in and near the control areas. Detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza in wild birds can be found online HERE.

DAIRY FARM SURVEILLANCE: Lactating dairy cattle must have a negative test before interstate movement under a federal order. USDA has expanded surveillance through testing milk at the farm or processor level to establish the health status of herds, as well as states.

PUBLIC ADVISORIES

Food Safety
Avian influenza does not present a food safety risk; cooked poultry and eggs and pasteurized dairy products are safe to eat.

Animal Health
Hobby poultry owners are encouraged to be aware of the signs of avian influenza and report illness and/or death to the USDA Healthy Birds Hotline: 866-536-7593.Callers will be routed to a state or federal veterinarian in Indiana for a case assessment. Dead birds should be double-bagged and refrigerated for possible testing.

Signs include: sudden death without clinical signs; lack of energy or appetite; decreased egg production; soft-shelled or misshapen eggs; swelling or purple discoloration of head, eyelids, comb, hocks; nasal discharge; coughing; sneezing; lack of coordination; and diarrhea. A great resource for backyard bird health information is online at:www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/defend-the-flock-program/dtf-resources/dtf-resources .

Situation updates and status reports about ongoing avian influenza activities, along with critical disease-related information, will be posted online at:  https://www.in.gov/boah/species-information/avianbirds/highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza/. Users may subscribe to email and/or text updates on a subscribe link at that page.

Wild Bird Health
More information about avian influenza and wild birds: https://www.in.gov/dnr/fish-and-wildlife/wildlife-resources/wildlife-diseases-in-indiana/avian-flu-bird-flu/

Human Health
Recent detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza A H5N1 viruses (H5N1 bird flu) in wild birds and poultry pose a low risk to the health of the general public. Human infections are most likely to be rare and happen in people with recreational or occupational exposures involving prolonged, unprotected close contact with infected birds or contaminated environments. The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) and local health departments (LHD) monitor people who have been exposed to test-positive animals for signs of influenza-like illness. To date, none have had evidence of infection or illness associated with AI virus.

IDOH offers the following guidance documents for poultry growers and emergency responders to protect their health:

Indiana Department of Health Avian Flu Producer Information

Mental Health
Community members who are affected by this animal health emergency should be aware of the possible impact on their mental health and to seek assistance if needed. Available resources include:

Be Well Indiana: Feeling overwhelmed, stressed, anxious or alone? Call this free, confidential resource available 24/7 to anyone in the state of Indiana.

Call 2-1-1 and enter your ZIP code.
Follow the prompts and select number 3 for the Be Well Crisis Helpline.

Farm Aid: This organization connects farmers with helpful services, resources and opportunities specific to their individual needs. Call the Farmer Hotline for immediate assistance Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM Eastern time.

Call 1-800-FARM-AID (1-800-327-6243).

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, as well as prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones.

Dial 9-8-8 or call 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255).

ABOUT INDIANA POULTRY PRODUCTION

Indiana is a leading producer of poultry, eggs and poultry products. Nationally, Indiana ranks number 1 in production of ducks, third in eggs, third in turkey production, and is a significant producer of broilers.

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Important Note:
Details disclosed here will be updated on BOAH’s website after test results are confirmed at the USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratory. This policy will keep BOAH’s website consistent with USDA’s reporting and avoid impacting international trade.

Ongoing/Latest Updates:
Updates are available online at: https://www.in.gov/boah/species-information/avianbirds/highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza/ Visit that webpage to subscribe for updates delivered via text and/or email by clicking the red subscribe icon at the top.

Media-Only Contact:
Denise Derrer Spears, Indiana State Board of Animal Health Public Information Director

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone: 317-544-2414

Questions or comments? Contact BOAH at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." data-linkto="mailto:">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

BOAH Quarterly Lunch-and-Learn

Thursday, February 27, 2025 at Noon (Eastern)

The Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) continues the quarterly lunch-and-learn webinar series with a second offering in February focused on highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) away from the farm. BOAH's partners at Indiana Department of Health and Indiana Department of Natural Resources will join us to discuss human health issues and how the disease is impacting wild birds.

The one-hour session is offered free to the public via MS Teams. The webinar will be recorded and posted to BOAH’s YouTube channel at a later date.

Veterinarians and registered veterinary technicians who participate can earn 1 hour of continuing education credit.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Beyond the Farm: Impact on Wild Birds & Impact on Human Health
Thursday, February 27 @ Noon Eastern

The Indiana State Board of Animal Health is hosting a second webinar this month to address HPAI-related issues beyond the farm to include helpful information from two of the agency’s state partners:

Indiana Department of Natural Resources Fish and Wildlife Health Biologist Eli Fleace will share insights about how HPAI is impacting wild birds in Indiana and beyond.
Indiana Department of Health’s Dr. Eric Hawkins, state epidemiologist, and Dr. Jennifer Brown, state public health veterinarian, will share information about what citizens should know about HPAI and human health.

Participants are invited to submit questions related to human health and/or wild birds before the webinar to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To register:
https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/b225db7a-29c7-4e0d-be8a-d3d8f56bffd9@2199bfba-a409-4f13-b0c4-18b45933d88d

Please pre-register as the system will email a link to log in.
Participants may register up to the start of the webinar,
but must allow time to receive the email with the access link.

In honor of National FFA Week, the seven Indiana FFA State Officers met in the Statehouse to receive a proclamation and resolution declaring Feb. 15-22 FFA Week.

“Indiana FFA and their membership embodies agriculture, youth education and development like no other organization,” said Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture. “It was a pleasure to have these outstanding young professionals representing the State of Indiana and agriculture so well in the Statehouse today and I look forward to celebrating FFA Week with them.”

Gov. Mike Braun signed a proclamation to name this week FFA Week in recognition of all the work the Indiana FFA Organization, agriculture educators and FFA advisors do to cultivate the next generation of agriculturists for the state.

During the week, chapters across the state and nation will host a variety of events to educate, advocate and celebrate the agricultural industry. From community service projects to a farmer’s breakfast, these activities pay homage to the dedication and commitment of today’s agriculturalists. Throughout the week, the Indiana FFA State Officers will travel the state to participate in activities alongside local FFA chapters and their communities.

The Indiana FFA Association also received a Senate Concurrent Resolution highlighting the impact of the FFA Organization, which is preparing more than 14,000 members in 90 of Indiana’s 92 counties for the over 250 unique careers in the food, fiber and natural resource sectors. The resolution was led by Sen. Jean Leising, Senate District 42 and Rep. Michael Aylesworth, House District 11.

Indiana FFA State Reporter Sienna Alexander, hailing from the Monrovia FFA Chapter, was excited to meet with legislators to promote Indiana agricultural education.

“FFA week is an wonderful opportunity for community members to learn more about the FFA organization and experience ag education and leadership development firsthand,” said Alexander. “My fellow officers and I love this week because we get to travel across the state and meet new members while also learning about and participating in their FFA week traditions.”

FFA members are agriculture’s future leaders, future food suppliers, future innovators and more! Whether it is through service projects or community gatherings, FFA Week is a time for FFA members to raise awareness about agricultural education and the role the FFA Organization plays in the development of agriculture's future leaders.

The first National FFA Week was held in 1948, when the National FFA Board of Directors designated a weeklong celebration to recognize George Washington’s example and legacy as a leader and farmer. For the past 77 years, FFA members across the country have taken part in agricultural, leadership and service-based activities during National FFA Week.

Visit www.inffa.org to learn more about Indiana FFA.

Pictured above is the 2024-25 Indiana FFA State Officer Team. From left to right: Stephanie Berenda, Northern Region Vice President (South Newton FFA Chapter), Cale Williams, Southern Region Vice President (Terre Haute South FFA Chapter), Sienna Alexander, Reporter (Monrovia FFA Chapter), Garrett Bolin, Sentinel (Indian Creek FFA Chapter), Christina Caldwell, Secretary (Connersville FFA Chapter), Ethan Wolheter, President (Prairie Heights FFA Chapter), Kyatalin Baker, Treasurer (Switzerland County FFA Chapter).