National Association of Conservation Districts

Stewardship

In 1955, the National Association of Conservation Districts began a national program to encourage Americans to focus on stewardship. Stewardship Week is officially celebrated from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in May. It is one of the world's largest conservation-related observances. 

The program relies on locally-led conservation districts sharing and promoting stewardship and conservation activities. Districts provide conservation and stewardship field days, programs, workshops and additional outreach efforts throughout their community to educate citizens about the need to care for our resources. Many district activities extend beyond the one week observance to include an entire year of outreach.

The Stewardship concept involves personal and social responsibility, including a duty to learn about and improve natural resources as we use them wisely, leaving a rich legacy for future generations.

One definition of Stewardship is "the individual's responsibility to manage his life and property with proper regard to the rights of others." E. William Anderson suggests stewardship "is essentially a synonym for conservation."

Stewardship Week helps reminds all citizens of the power of each person to conserve natural resources and improve the world. When people work together with their local conservation district, that power grows and grows. As these good deeds multiply across the nation's network of conservation districts, the results are spectacular!

When the land does well for its owner, and the owner does well by his land—when both end up better by reason of their partnership—then we have conservation. - Aldo Leopold

2009 Stewardship Week - Check out this page for more details on the 2009 Stewardship Week themed "Dig It! The Secrets of Soil!"

Additional Resources:
Stewardship Success Stories - Districts share information on how they successfully celebrate Stewardship.

Poster Contest - The annual National Conservation Poster Contest provides kindergarten through twelfth grade students an opportunity to convey their thoughts about soil, water and related natural resource issues through art. It also highlights the educational outreach efforts of conservation districts and their state associations, auxiliaries and agencies. The contest follows the annual Stewardship theme.

Speech and Essay Contest Ideas - This document contains information on how you can hold your own local speech and essay contests. Some states also hold state contests and many FFA chapters and states use the NACD's Stewardship themes for speech contests as well.  Please Note: There is not a national contest for speeches and essays.

Clip Art - Clip art that follows the conservation theme isn't always easy to find. This page contains a collection of clip art, including many that go along with the 2008 Stewardship theme: Water is Life.