TY - JOUR T1 - Rising to the challenge of hugh hammond bennett JF - Journal of Soil and Water Conservation SP - 133A LP - 133A VL - 62 IS - 6 AU - David Sanders Y1 - 2007/11/01 UR - http://www.jswconline.org/content/62/6/133A.abstract N2 - I have been involved in soil and water conservation for nearly 50 years. My interest in this subject was kindled as a child when I was brought up on a small, mixed farm in rural Australia. At agricultural college I was deeply impressed by the soil conservation staff that we met—by their enthusiasm, professionalism, and obvious dedication to what they were doing. This fired me with my own enthusiasm, and immediately after graduating I joined my state soil conservation service and was fortunate enough to be appointed as a field officer and to be able to work directly with farmers. So started my professional career. Soon I was lucky enough to be placed on the planning team of Australia's first large-scale watershed project. We had the technology to get the job done but quickly realized the scheme would only succeed if we could gain the trust and support of the farming community. We therefore had the opportunity to develop some new and innovative ways of effectively involving the farmers in the whole process of planning and implementing what needed doing. Over the years these ideas were further developed and have been used in the much-publicized … ER -