Over 24 years, Josh Monaghan helped grow King Conservation District’s food and farm programs and services while forging vital partnerships and collaborations both within KCD and with numerous outside agencies and non-profits. He has much to be proud of, in arenas ranging from KCD’s regional food system grants program and farm services, to KCD program manager support and collaborative governance efforts.
Working with KCD’s Board of Supervisors, Conservation Panel, and Advisory Committee, he facilitated making connections between a healthy farm economy and farmer commitments to natural resource stewardship. He also successfully launched and grew KCD’s collaborative Regional Food System Grant Program and associated Strategic Initiatives.
Through his farm services work, he oversaw significant service improvements at KCD, including standardization of planning processes, plan products, and staff training and certification initiatives. In addition, the program emphasized and expanded coordination with partners, including regional food alignment, as well as strengthening KCD’s work with other agencies and non-profits serving farmers, including USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), King County, Public Health — Seattle & King County, Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) and Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA).
Josh also advanced KCD’s role in collaborative governance. This included active participation and leadership in the Snoqualmie Fish, Farm, Flood Initiative and joining with other local agencies in the formation of a King County Pollution Identification and Correction Alliance.
Josh departs as KCD’s Director of Stewardship Programs to seek out new opportunities and challenges related to how communities and agencies collaborate to tackle complex problems, and support how people learn and change together to improve our world for our children and the future. KCD thanks Josh for his service and wishes him future success.