New conservationist

The landscape has changed, but the mission is still the same: To help farmers with conservation practices.

“NRCS has a huge catalog of conservation practices and not all of them apply to one place,” Ricardo Ortiz-Rios said Wednesday.

Ortiz-Rios, who started work in May as the new district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, grew up in a tropical environment and began in career with NRCS in the deserts of California.

Now he finds himself in Jay County, with a different set of issues facing farmers but with the same mission of providing assistance.

“We offer technical assistance, and we also have some financial assistance,” he said. “We take applications year-round. … Technical assistance is always available and it’s free.”

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Ortiz-Rios received his bachelor’s degree in agricultural science with a concentration in engineering and biosystems from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. He went on to earn a master’s degree in environmental management from the School of Environmental Affairs at Metropolitan University in San Juan. 

While still working on his master’s degree, he joined NRCS for two summers of work in the California desert. There he found the overriding emphasis is on the scarcity of the water supply.

“It was very different from what I’m doing here,” he said.

In Jay County, he’s found a culture of conservation well-rooted in the local agricultural community.

“Indiana NRCS has been considered one of the pioneers in conservation nationally,” he said. “Usually Indiana is the first ones to raise their hands and try something new.”

Locally, he said, that translates into “a built culture for conservation.”

“It’s normal here to talk about grass waterways and conservation,” he said. “Here it’s a normal thing.”

Ortiz-Rios, 33, noted he’s still in the getting-acquainted phase of his work locally, attending meetings and getting up to speed.

Meanwhile, he and his wife, Lourdes, and their 9-month-old daughter Amelia have moved to rural Portland and are hoping to buy a home.

Interim personnel have filled the district conservationist position for the past several months, following the departure of Jason Mas.