TY - JOUR T1 - Mastering the craft of conservation JF - Journal of Soil and Water Conservation SP - 108A LP - 108A VL - 57 IS - 5 AU - Craig Cox Y1 - 2002/09/01 UR - http://www.jswconline.org/content/57/5/108A.abstract N2 - The highlight of this year's annual conference was, for me, meeting Fred Woods. Fred is the first recipient of the Harold and Kay Scholl Excellence in Conservation Award. I'd read, of course, the biographical and other information that led the Awards Committee to select him for the award. From the age of fifteen—after a visit from Hugh Hammond Bennett to the family farm in North Carolina—Fred committed himself to getting conservation on the land. He moved to Martin County, Indiana after World War II, where the topography is steep rolling hills interlaced with many small stream valleys. In 1947, he became a soil conservation aid with the Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service) because he needed off-farm income and his concern for improving the gullied local land. After over 38 years of service, Woods' footprints are on every hillside and in every valley in Martin County. It was his dedication that formed two watershed flood protection projects; his dedication that modified his own farm tractor to demonstrate minimum tillage to local farmers; and his dedication that led to one of the first conservation plans on Defense Department property that … ER -