Staff/Supervisors

Staff

Soil and Water Conservation District

Lea Hickle

Conservation Director

Contact about: grants, wildlife, water quality, and general district operations.

Lea Hickle

Conservation Director

Lea was hired in September of 2024. She is an alum of Ball State University where she studied Environmental Geoscience and Natural Resource Management. She has experience in public programing and events, soil/water sampling, and data reporting. Currently, she and her fiancé live in Noblesville with their dog Milo.

Phone:765-362-0405 Ext. 3
Email:lhickle@montgomerycoswcd.com

Sam Lovold

Program Coordinator

Contact about: events, education/outreach, or invasive species.

Sam Lovold

Program Coordinator

Sam was hired as the Program Coordinator in 2023. He coordinates activities throughout the year for the Montgomery County CISMA, Community Growers of Montgomery County (CGMC), Women4theLand , as well as various field days. Sam enjoys educating people on conservation issues and contributing to making Montgomery County a better place. Sam lives in Crawfordsville.

Phone:765-362-0405 ext. 3
Email:programs@montgomerycoswcd.com

If you would like to learn more about the backgrounds of our staff and ways they can help, view the video below.

Natural Resources Conservation Service

David Stanley

District Conservationist

You can contact him about: Farming, Soil Health, EQIP, Conservation, and CRP

David Stanley

District Conservationist

Dave started working for the NRCS in 1990 in Parke County and started in Montgomery County in 1994. He enjoys getting to know the farmers and producers of Montgomery County.

Phone:765-362-0405 ext. 3
Email:david.stanley2@usda.gov

Our board meetings are open to the public and generally occur on the first Thursday of each month at 8 AM. Meetings are held at the USDA Service Center in Crawfordsville. Changes in date or location will be posted on the door of the USDA Service Center.

If you would like to view the minutes from past board meetings please click the button below. For older minutes than what is available, please contact the district.

Meeting Minutes

Supervisors

Jordan Gillenwater

Chairman

Jordan Gillenwater

Chairman

Jordan lives with his wife in the northern part of the county near Darlington. This is where they farm, have cows, and have pigs. They are part owners of a local grocery store called Four Seasons Local Market where they sell a lot of their products. Some conservations projects the Gillenwaters have done of their farm include multiple EQIP projects, a high tunnel, heavy use areas for livestock, some CRP acres, fencing projects for rotational grazing, and pasture improvement projects.

Marc Roberts

Vice Chairman

Marc Roberts

Vice Chairman

Marc lives just East of Mace where he sells seed, has a small agronomics business, and he farms with his father in law. Some of the conservation practices that he has used include CRP, grassed waterways, CSP for cover crops, and EQIP for Heavy use areas, timber stand improvement, and a fencing project. He got involved with the district in 2011.

Raoul Moore

Secretary/Treasurer

Raoul Moore

Secretary/Treasurer

Raoul's family moved to the area in 1954 when his father got an English Professor job at Wabash. In 1956 his family moved to a 40 acre hobby farm north of town at junction of Walnut Fork and Sugar Creek. They grew most of their food and truck farmed for some income. His father did timber stand improvement and planted a hard to access field near the creek to trees in 1958. One of those walnut seedlings is now 24” diameter at breast height (DBH). The Moore Family Farm currently has about 700 acres of woodlands with about half of those as plantations from 25 different years. The changes in AG have made many smaller, high perimeter to volume fields uneconomic to farm. Some soils since the clearing off of the state and 100 years of plowing have lost fertility also making them unattractive for farming. Trees on good soils can return well over row crops but require tree time to mature. Raoul's hope is to get more people nurturing their woodlands and converting areas to trees.

Aron Rhoads

Supervisor

Aron Rhoads

Supervisor

Aron has been a part of the Montgomery County SWCD board in some capacity for the last 17 years. His family farm is located Southwest of New Ross, North of Ladoga. He has a wife and three kids. Aron also works for Beacon Credit Union as a Loan Officer at this time. He got involved when his family was installing some grassed waterways and filter strips on the ground they operate and he was approached by Dave Stanley and George Reger about possibly joining the board to bring in some young and new blood to the board. One of the big benefits that Aron has seen over his time with the board has been recognizing how much conservation is put on the ground in Montgomery County.

Daniel Bullerdick

Supervisor

Daniel Bullerdick

Supervisor

Daniel joined the board in 2021 as Supervisor. He and his dad have a small family farm where they produce corn and soybeans. They have used various conservation practices on their farm over the years. They have no-tilled soybeans for about 30 years and no-tilled corn since the mid- 2000s. The Bullerdicks also have a considerable amount of CRP (conservation reserve program). A personal goal of his on their farm is to reduce surface runoff and leaching of nutrients from the soil.

If you would like to learn more about the backgrounds of our supervisors and the conservation practices they use in their operations, view the video below.

Staff

Soil and Water Conservation District

Natural Resources Conservation Service

Supervisors

Share this: