Conservation Planner Spotlight — Johnny Anians
- ilaimproject
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
With his technical background, McLean County ConservationPlanner Johnny Anians brings a unique skill set to the AIM Initiative. Combined with a strong work ethic and curiosity, his contributions could help drive meaningful improvements for Conservation Planners more broadly. Before joining the AIM Initiative in June of 2023, Johnny worked at State Farm as part of a specialized technical assignment team tasked with piloting a new department that the company ultimately chose not to move forward with. Although he was initially disheartened by this decision, he looked forward to the opportunity to try something new.
Johnny learned about the AIM Initiative from a friend who was working as a Conservation Planner in the McLean County Office at the time and informed him of an open position in Pontiac. Once his friend found a position working at a SWCD in the fall of 2023, he transferred to the McLean County Office. According to Johnny, his district has a very high workload in terms of CRP, EQIP and CSP, with 198 CRP contracts in 2025 alone, and his assistance is greatly appreciated by McLean County Soil Conservationist Devin Jefferson. Describing Johnny’s work, Devin stated, “He’s very flexible, no matter what the task or job is- office work or field work. We’re able to show him what we are looking for, and he can run with it. He’s very good at asking questions and making sure things are done properly.”
According to Devin, the most frequently utilized NRCS practices in their district include cover crops, no till, reduced till, grassed waterways, and pollinator planting, but Johnny has also had the opportunity to assist a couple fruit and vegetable farmers with their high tunnel and alley cropping applications. Describing a visit to a local farm last year, Johnny said, “We got to see the whole operation, got to see sort of how he ran things, and to get a better idea of what he was wanting to accomplish as far as species and other details go. I was there for a lot of pre-planning and then Devin, our Soil Con, took the lead from there.
Describing an additional producer who he was able to assist, Johnny said, “One of our local small farmers was able to secure funding for a high tunnel, a pollinator planting, and mulching for the high tunnel. When you’re a small operation like that, it tends to be more meaningful to have cost share on projects because it allows them to expand a bit more.”
Along with helping farmers work through the steps to complete cost-share applications, Johnny has had the opportunity to put his technical skills to use by working with his DC, Allan Hertzberger, in ArcGIS Pro to recreate a piece of software that Conservation Planners are no longer able to access due to the migration to Amazon Web Services. This shift created extra steps for Johnny when preparing for site visits, including the need to pull extra documents and drive to different offices to gather necessary paperwork. However, he believes that all the helpful features that were offered by the
Status Review Map App can be built into ArcGIS Pro, which can be housed on a desktop and tends to be more user friendly than web-based tools.
Explaining this project, Johnny said, “It’s not entirely too complicated on its own, but my goal is to add improvements to the areas that I found inhibiting and get rid of other aspects that cluttered up the data. It is a work in progress, but hopefully I can document enough of it along the way so that others could eventually incorporate it into their
own counties.”
Using his tech skills, Johnny is looking forward to exploring the potential within this program. He said, “There are so many things I think we could use it for, but the truth is that it is a very intimidating program. Most people learn what they need to get on with whatever they need and move on. This is quite understandable, since, again, it’s a powerful program that reaches across a large swath of industries. Most of us aren’t going to go learn Python when we just need to delineate watersheds. But I find an interest in that, so I kind of want to foster that for now and see how much I can grow with it.”
Although Johnny is a self-described introvert, he values the knowledge that he’s able to gain from the colleagues in his office who have years of experience under their belts. Describing his work environment in the Normal, IL office, he said, “We have 8 or 9 people working in the same space. Over time, I’ve gotten to know everyone quite well. On top of that, we have several people here between the SWCD and NRCS that have over 20 years of experience, which I’d wager is quite rare since people like to move around a lot for grade bumps. It has been quite the boon for me whenever I’ve felt lost on technical documents or the way different parts of the contracts work, surveying, among many other topics.”
Devin agreed that everyone in their office works together quite well and understands the work that needs to be done. When asked about how Johnny contributes, he stated, “He’s been great to work with… a very good independent worker… We can trust he’s going to do the job and do it right. So, he’s been a great asset for the office.”
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