A One Woman NRCS Service Center

Earth Team volunteer Peggy Pippin reviews a conservation plan at the Hartley County, Texas, NRCS Service Center

Since joining the NRCS Earth Team volunteer program in 1989, Peggy Pippin has contributed 15,000-plus volunteer hours to the Hartley County, Texas, NRCS Field Office and Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD).

Her Dad, Ken Cunningham, is the NRCS district conservationist in Hartley County and having grown-up in the area, Peggy feels a deep connection to the land and people in that locale.

In addition to her many interests that include riding horses and helping her parents with chuck wagon competitions all over the U.S., Peggy is virtually a one-woman NRCS service center. She assists with the installation of conservation practices, irrigation pipeline measurements, and landscape profiles; acts as caretaker for field trial windbreak trees; helps with conservation plan preparation; and does field for mapping using Global Positioning System. And it doesn’t stop there. She also helps in the office with filing, answering telephones, helping customers, and assisting the information/education effort.

On the SWCD side of her volunteer activities, Peggy assists with windbreak tree sales and distributing irrigation supplies. Fortunately her time and energy devoted to conservation hasn’t gone unrecognized, as she was recently awarded with the NRCS 2003 Zone 1 Volunteer Award. This wasn’t Peggy’s first award and considering all her hard work, certainly won’t be the last.

Your contact is Rose England, NRCS Earth Team volunteer coordinator, at 806-468-8600 ext. 114 or rose.england@tx.usda.gov.