Fredonia NRCD

Conservation Practices

  • Water Distribution for Livestock and Wildlife

  • Grazing Management

  • Brush Management

  • Fencing

Primary Resource Concerns

  • Water Quality & Quantity

  • Noxious Weeds

  • Soil Erosion

  • Plant Productivity

District Contact Information

Rhea McCormick, Clerk

fredonianrcd@gmail.com

(928) 875-2898

P.O. Box 536, Fredonia, AZ 86022

District Meeting information

Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of every month @ 4:00 p.m. 

Fredonia NRCS FIeld Office, 143 S. Main St., Fredonia, AZ

The next meeting is scheduled for: TBD

Scroll to the bottom of the page to download agenda and minutes

About the District

The Fredonia NRCD was organized on June 17, 1943. Its boundaries include the area south of the Utah/Arizona State line and east of the Hurricane Cliffs, and south to the Colorado River, following the river back to the Arizona/Utah border. This area is within both Mohave and Coconino Counties, and encompasses approximately 3,068,875 acres.

The Fredonia District encompasses the land north of the Colorado River in the very northwestern part of the state. The land plant communities belong primarily to the Colorado Plateau, which includes the salt desert shrub, the sagebrush grasslands, the pinion and juniper zone, and finally the ponderosa and mixed conifer communities in the higher elevations within the Kaibab National Forest and the Grand Canyon National Park.

Physical Features

  • Elevation: 1,250 ft. at the Colorado River, up to 9,100 ft. at the top of Lindberg Hill in Grand Canyon National Park
  • Terrain: Varies from very rugged mountain drainages to low valleys
  • Precipitation: Average 3-20″ annually, varying with elevation

Land Use

  • Federal: 1,389,446 acres (BLM) and 658,706 acres (NPS)
  • State: 134,631 acres
  • Tribal: 121,142 acres
  • Private: 110,361 acres

Board Members

  • Brent Mackelprang, Chairman
  • Shane Button, Vice-Chairman
  • Steven Don Mackelprang, Secretary/Tresurer
  • Jacob Christensen, Member
  • Eric McCormick, Member

District Highlights

Water Quality & Quantity

A major resource concern for the Fredonia District is water quality and quantity. The District provides support and leadership in the Kanab Creek Watershed Plan effort. The District is working in cooperation with the Kaibab Piute Tribe, the town of Fredonia, NRCS, and private land owners to establish an agreement to collect, map, and qualify the salt cedar (tamarisk) problems in the Kanab Creek drainage basin. This drainage offers multiple problems associated with it including flood control for the town of Fredonia and agriculture plots surrounding the area. It has become so overgrown with invasive species that with a hundred-year flood it would breach the actual drainage and flow into the community. By controlling and/or eliminating invasive species the area could see improved water flows, which would benefit local producers throughout the year, instead of just the wettest winter months.  In the process of controlling the invasive species within the drainage, the Fredonia NRCD aims to re-establish native trees, grasses, and browse in the drainage which would benefit wildlife and improve the overall visual impacts within this major drainage into the Grand Canyon.

Arizona Strip Noxious Weed Control

There is an ongoing effort to control invasive noxious weeds in the Arizona Strip area. To support this continuous project, the District has sponsored partnerships with agencies to monitor and collect baseline data on water flows, quality, and quantity. Agency funding is allocated to noxious weed eradication, and includes foliage growing in current waterways. The District also provides herbicides to local landowners and ranchers to use on private land, should they wish, and has purchased a machine to better apply the spray. More than any other year, landowners have utilized the equipment the District provides to control invasive species.  Furthermore, Fredonia NRCD sponsors an annual Weed Day, where local landowners, ranchers, and agency representatives join in to identify problem areas and work together to address this important resource concern.

Fredonia Natural Resource Conservation Education Center

The first step to being a good conservationist is education. The Ed Center supports the Arizona/Utah Range Livestock Workshop, the Cowman’s Reproductive Workshop, ad the Pasture Management Workshop. Funds from the Ed Center also support a scholarship that goes to students who pursue expanding their education in natural resource conservation, rangeland management, or other relevant areas of study. Furthermore, the Ed Center supports the local FFA chapter in their conservation practices; funds environmental education programs at the local elementary and high schools and educates students about conservation practices; and last year sponsored the local science fair and Earth Day activities at the schools.

Since 2016, the Ed Center has sponsored the Fredonia/Moccasin Unified School District High School’s Animal Science class. Students have built two pens, complete with water troughs and covers to house the animals they use in their studies. After researching which species would bring them the best return, students decided to raise sheep. The Board, after hearing a presentation given by participating students, saw that through this program, students have gained valuable knowledge in raising animals, like determining which feed will produce the most weight gain on their animals. The District is excited that the program is going exceptionally well and will continue to support it for years to come.