Welcome to Hancock SWCD

Hancock Soil & Water Conservation District has announced the 2020 Outstanding Cooperator; Dave & Jan Reese

Dave Reese was a supervisor with Hancock SWCD from 2006-2020. Dave served as chairman of the board for a majority of those years. Dave and Jan, along with their family, have developed, Kaleidoscope Farms Christmas tree farm. The farm already has more than 25,000 trees growing as their main crop. The Cooperator of the Year award is based on the many conservation practices that Dave and Jan Reese have accomplished on their farm.

These practices include: a 7-acre riparian buffer protecting both banks of Ottawa Creek with a variety of hardwood trees that offer habitat for a diverse population of birds, pollinators, and wildlife while shading the stream and stabilizing the soil; two windbreaks accomplish most of the same things for the open farm ground.  Ten acres of woodlands are managed for invasive species control and a paw-paw patch. Several acres of CRP ground and field border provide native plants for pollinators and wildlife and a clover cover crop around the Christmas trees does the same. The Reese’s practice Integrated Pest Management methods of disease and insect control to avoid the use of pesticides.

Dave & Jan have led Kaleidoscope Farms to be an Ohio Certified Tree Farm and member of The Ohio and National Christmas Tree Associations.  Dave is past president and still serves on the Board of Directors of the Ohio Christmas Tree Association.