Recently, the Greene County Conservation Department received two large donations.

Conservation Director Tanner Scheuermann tells Raccoon Valley Radio about 60 acres near Spring Lake Park was donated to the county and to be managed by the Conservation Board to be used as a wildlife refuge. Scheuermann notes there are not a lot of wildlife areas within Greene County and because of where the land is located along the East Buttrick Creek Watershed, the donation may also help another endeavor.

“I know there’s been a lot of work, recently, with restoring oxpose for Topeka Shiner, one of our endangered species (of fish) within the county here. So there’s been a lot of work and a lot of funding aims towards those.”    

Scheuermann adds they also received a $30,000 donation from Jerry Kelly, who previously donated $50,000 to update the lakeside shelter at Spring Lake a few years ago. Sheuermann talks about getting these substantial donations.

“It’s kind of overwhelming to me when these people come and they want to give our department money, or the county money, to upgrade facilities and things like that. The Supervisors over the years have been very, very supportive of the Conservation Board, but a lot of these things cost money. Everybody struggles with budgets and things like that, so anytime we have an individual come and want to donate to the county, we just, we’re overwhelmed and very thankful.”  

Scheuermann says Kelly’s most recent donation will be used for a project at Spring Lake Park.