Tama Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD) is pleased to announce Abe (Douglas) Dieleman of rural Toledo and Dylan Hosek of rural Traer have been selected to each receive a $1,000 local college scholarship through the SWCD’s outreach programming.

Abe is a Green Mountain-Garwin graduate at Iowa State University majoring in Agronomy. While in college, he would like to work in sustainable ag research and learn how to improve management practices in row crop and livestock production. He also feels growing up a farm kid had a big impact on his career plans. Working for a neighbor in organic beef production one summer really turned his focus to improving soil carbon content and the impact it has on land productivity. This led him to his future career in agronomy. “Soil conservation and water quality go hand in hand. Preventing soil erosion and responsibly managing the soil can benefit water quality.”

Dylan is a North Tama graduate majoring in Agricultural & Food Studies and minoring in Agronomy and Agribusiness. His dream job is in agribusiness using cutting-edge technology skills he is learning at Morningside University in Sioux City. Dylan says his youth involvement in 4-H and growing up on a farm have had the greatest impact on his career choice. He also shared, “Soil and water conservation are important to protect future generations of farmers. Without it, our livelihoods could be in jeopardy with decreased crop production, loss of fertile soil in our fields and water being contaminated by leaching of the nutrients needed to support our high-yielding commodities.”