Upon speaking with Courtney Lercher at the Scott County Soil and Water Conservation District, her environmental consciousness radiates along with her ambition to assist producers, and it comes as no surprise that she was one of the first Conservation Planners (CPs) to achieve Level 3 certification.

Her interest in agriculture started in high school when she and her parents began raising chickens, ducks, and geese in their small town in Clinton County. Her fondness for these birds is apparent as she speaks very affectionately about the different breeds they raised, sharing the unique personalities of each one. This activity led to her joining Future Farmers of America (FFA), where she began showing her birds. She said, “I won a couple prizes and started to get really into FFA … that led to me being part of the horticulture team, where I started studying plants and learning different facts about them.”

Learning about plants, along with visiting state parks and taking nature-based vacations with her family, piqued her interest in environmental stewardship. She took a class at Illinois College called Emerging Issues in the Ag Industry, which made her start considering the possibility of combining her fervor for agriculture and environmentalism into potential career opportunities. In February of 2023, she was hired by the Conservation Capacity Building Initiative.

She said, “I think entering this job has really opened my eyes to the fact that I can actually do something about conservation in this setting. I wasn’t sure that I would be able to find a job where I could care about the environment and actually do something physically… where in this job, I am able to help producers and actually help the environment.”

In her Scott County office, she works closely with SCSWCD Resource Conservationist (RC) Lance Mueller and NRCS Area 2 Compliance Lead John Ford who oversees wetland and highly erodible land determinations in 26 counties across west central Illinois. As one of the smaller counties in the state, they are the only fulltime employees in this office, so they work on many different programs together. Lance said, “When Courtney came on board, that just means she got thrown into the thick of things, and she’s always been very willing and open minded about jumping around f rom program to program. CRP is one of the programs that the district and IDOA planners work on quite a bit… She jumped right on-board doing field visits, evaluating the vegetation that’s out there, and grasped early on what indicates compliance or non-compliance with the CRP contract. We must follow up with producers with a letter, explaining what’s going on out there… Courtney did very well with developing the verbiage for that.” Being
such a small off ice, they partner with Morgan County for certain events like f ish and tree sales or Envirothon. In fact, they also spent the summer working in the Morgan County office while theirs
was being remodeled. Courtney said, “I love how big and open the new off ice space is. It really allows for open communication collaboration on projects with my coworkers.”

The Scott County off ice is heavy in survey and design projects. According to Courtney, they were recently out surveying 3 to 4 days per week, which includes GPS data collection. This topographical information is required to design and complete projects like water and sediment control basins, for which cost share is provided through the state’s Partners for Conservation program. Lance said, “Right f rom the get-go with the GPS survey equipment, Courtney jumped right on board and learned how to operate that data collector right away. I would venture to say that she’s more proficient in that than some NRCS employees who have been here for years.”

The Scott County off ice is heavy in survey and design projects. According to Courtney, they were recently out surveying 3 to 4 days per week, which includes GPS data collection. This
topographical information is required to design and complete projects like water and sediment control basins, for which cost share is provided through the state’s Partners for Conservation program. Lance said, “Right f rom the get-go with the GPS survey equipment, Courtney jumped right on board and learned how to operate that data collector right away. I would venture to say that she’s more prof icient in that than some NRCS employees who have been here for years.”

According to Lance and John, once a producer has implemented their first conservation practice, they often will follow up with an interest in doing more. Just being available to provide information goes a long way, as John explained, “Someone willing to take the time to interact with them, introduce them to new ideas, help them take those baby steps, and then it branches out f rom there.” Lance agreed, adding, “I think you see a success story with almost every new participant. It’s not uncommon for a farmer to come in for a cost share project… maybe they haven’t done any conservation work on their farm for a number of years, and once they get that first project out of the way, they will come back and engage in another contract.”

Courtney has established a connection with many of the producers who visit her office, explaining that hearing about how producers are implementing these practices makes them feel good about the work they are doing and helps them create better conservation plans in the future. John said, “Courtney will send out the letters for CRP status reviews, and they will come in here and have questions about it. She can get right up there and explain what’s going on and answer their questions and help them know what they need to do.”

With John having 35 years of experience working with NRCS, and Lance being the SCSWCD RC for nearly 30 years, Courtney has gained a wealth of knowledge f rom both. She said, “Lance and John have really demonstrated how USDA employees and partners should work together in each office. They have each taken me under their wing and helped teach me new skills like surveying and how to use what I have learned in trainings during day-to-day situations in the office.”

John believes the process for becoming a Level 3 Certified Conservation Planner has become more complex over the years, and he’s been impressed with Courtney’s ability to complete this while also performing her job so effectively. He said, “I’m just amazed at how organized she is… She keeps track of where things are at and stays on track… A lot of times I will look over, start talking to her, and realize that she’s getting training online… And not only that, but making it a priority to be available to go out in the field and learn these additional jobs that are part of being in a field off ice… She’s done really well.”

One of the final assignments in achieving Level 3 Certification is to create two Resource Management Plans, which address every resource concern you may have on farm (erosion, water quality, energy, etc.), for two producers. Once these are submitted, the CPs get feedback, make corrections, and submit the plans again. Courtney described this as a very detail-oriented and immersive month-long process. Most NRCS employees
spend at least a few years working toward Level 3 Certification, but Courtney explained that the training process is very back-to-back for CPs, which made it easier for her to retain the information and apply it. She said, “A typical NRCS employee would take 3 to 5 years to get the Level 3 status, which means you are able to talk to a producer, explain things, and build a plan curated to their needs f rom the very beginning to end. But I got it done in less than two, which is exciting.”

Along with spending time outdoors, Courtney enjoys the fluidity of her job and getting to work on different projects each day. “When people ask what I do… I jokingly tell them that I look at grass,” she said with a chuckle. “ That’s my favorite part… being able to look outside and identify plants… When native plants are in full bloom—getting to see the butterflies and bees.”

This article was originally published in our December 2024 Newsletter, click here to read the newsletter.