National Association of Conservation Districts

NACD Officers

Gene Schmidt, President, is a farmer from Hanna, Indiana with extensive experience working for conservation districts. He has been a member of the LaPorte County Soil and Water Conservation District board since 1983, and has served in numerous leadership positions in the Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, including as president in 1995 and 1996. In addition to his local- and state-level district work, Schmidt has been active at the national level since the mid-1990s. He served as a member of NACD’s executive board and most recently as the chair of the Stewardship and Education Committee.

Schmidt and his wife, Diane, farm 1,500 acres of seed corn, seed beans, and wheat and operate a retail seed business. Conservation practices in use on Schmidt's farm include minimum till, no-till, cover crops, stream buffers and windbreaks.

Earl Garber, First Vice President, is a licensed crop consultant and rice, soybean and hay producer from Louisiana. He started his involvement in conservation as a Soil Scientist, Soil Conservationist and District Conservationist with the USDA. He has been active on the Acadia Soil and Water Conservation District board of supervisors, in Southwestern Louisiana, since 1981. Garber recently served as the President of the Louisiana Association of Conservation Districts. He also held the position of Louisiana Board Member for the National Association of Conservation Districts before being newly elected to the Second Vice President Executive position.

Garber has his own farming operation which includes 550 acres of rice, soybeans, grain sorghum, timber and commercial hay production. Earl also provides daily service to area producers as a Louisiana licensed crop consultant and product support specialist for G&H Seed Co.

Garber and his wife, Janis Landry, live and farm in the Northwestern portion of Acadia parish, Louisiana.

Jack Majeres, Second Vice President, began his conservation experience in 1974 when he was employed as the District Manager to the Minnehaha Conservation District in South Dakota. In this position, he assisted in establishing the SDACD Employees Association and served as its president for two years. Majeres stayed a District Manager for seven years. He then returned to Moody County where he has served as a District Supervisor for 24 years. Majeres has also served as a Director to the SDACD Board where he held the position of Treasurer, Vice President and President.

Prior to being elected into the Secretary/Treasurer position of the NACD Executive Board this year, Majeres was appointed to the NACD District Operations/Member Services Committee in 2002 and was the appointed chair for the past three years.

Majeres and his wife Alice live on their fourth generation family farm in southeast South Dakota. Having been raised on this conservation award winning farm, he has developed a great understanding for conservation practices such as field and farmstead windbreaks, grassed waterways, minimum tillage, terraces, contour farming and much more.

Steve Miller, Secretary/Treasurer, is part of a family farm and ranch operation in Fairfield, Idaho. A graduate of the University of Idaho with a BS in Agricultural Engineering, he and his wife Linda have lived on the ranch since 1972. He has been a Camas Soil Conservation District supervisor since 1978 and three term President of the Idaho Association of Conservation Districts. Miller served as Idaho board member for National Association of Conservation Districts, Pacific Region representative to the NACD Executive Board, Chairman of the Stewardship and Education Committee and on several task force assignments.

Steve and Linda have utilized minimum till, crop rotation, and organic alfalfa and grain production and marketing in their farming operation. Miller has implemented EQIP water conservation projects and is completing a stock water and fence project as well as rock drop structures to arrest stream incision and stream bank erosion on Willow Creek which provides irrigation, stock water, and wildlife habitat on the ranch.

Steve Robinson, Past President, operates a family farm in Union County, Ohio. Robinson has served as a district supervisor for Union Soil and Water Conservation District since 1988. He has filled many leadership roles both in his district and in his state association, including service as President of the Ohio Federation of Soil and Water Conservation Districts from 1999-2001. Robinson has participated at the national level since 1997 serving as a member of the Board of Directors and chair of the District Operations Committee. He was elected to national office in 2006, serving as NACD President from 2008 – 2010.

Robinson was raised on a dairy farm in Union County and continues to farm approximately 900 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat there today. Conservation practices on his farm include nine water and sediment control structures, three waterways with rock chutes, surface drainage, a wooded wetland, filter strips and use of no-tillage and strip tillage on corn. In addition, Steve manages Robinson Excavating, Inc., a family owned business specializing in earth moving for ponds, waterways, rock chutes, wetlands and site development.