Local resource chief lobbies Washington

Glenn County Resource Conservation District manager Kandi Manhart heads off to Washington, D.C., next week for a 10-day tour of the capitol and a visit to Kentucky.

However, her travels are not a vacation.

She is attending a seminar sponsored by the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation.

Manhart will meet with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-San Francisco, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, and members of President Barack Obama's administration on issues such as international trade, health and climate change.

Her group also will visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture, meet with officials from the Humane Society of the United States and talk with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

The seminar ends with a visit to Kentucky where participants will learn not only about agriculture there, but coal mining in the eastern Appalachian mountains.

"I want to understand the legislative process better and look at issues at the national level," Manhart said Tuesday. "I want to see if there is something I can bring back to Glenn County."

For example, her conservation district is working with landowners to eradicate arundo and tamarisk in Lower Stony Creek and is looking at options for realigning the creek bed, she said.

Water from Black Butte Dam flows into the creek, and the dam is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Manhart said she hopes making connections in Washington, D.C., will help locally in the future.

"It is quite an honor to be part of this," she said. The trip is being paid for by the foundation which granted Manhart a two-year fellowship.

The program's purpose is to make people involved in agriculture better leaders, she said - not just in the industry but in their communities as well.

Charlie Crabb, director of education for the foundation, said the fellowship has little to do with agriculture and a lot to do with leadership skills.

It partners with the University of California, Davis, California State University, Fresno and California Polytechnic universities at Pomona and San Luis Obispo to educate foundation fellows on various global topics, Crabb said.

Participants attend 14 seminars during the two years, he said.

Foundation fellows also learn about their personal leadership styles, how they interact with other leaders and groups and how to better understand other people's perspectives, Crabb said.

So far, Manhart's class has visited the Loaves and Fishes homeless shelter in Sacramento to learn about homeless people, and it also went to East Los Angeles to learn about gang intervention, education and job development programs, she said.

A 15-day international trip is planned for 2011, Crabb said, but he does not know where Manhart's group will go at this point.

Previous seminars abroad have gone to Africa, the Balkans, China and South America away from the tourist areas, he said.

Contact Rick Longley at 934-6800 or rlongley@tcnpress.com.