Cheryl Kobernik
Position

Cheryl is Program Director at Manistee-Benzie Community Mental Health. As a returning member, she is no stranger to the role the Conservation District plays in preserving our natural resources. Cheryl and her husband, Alan, run North Star Organics, a forty-acre fruit farm growing tart cherries.

She is very familiar with the economics of trying to run a small family farm in Benzie County . After a work day supervising services to consumers, the licensed MSW heads to the orchards to prune their trees. Still the ‘new kid on the block’ after 23 years, it was the 70 and 80 year old farmers they turned to when they decided to go organic.

“They were our best resources,” she says, “because they came before the new synthetic fertilizers. They used compost material and manure. We were connecting with the past.”

She hopes that conservation districts can re-establish their sense of value in their communities. As a board member, she would like to see the needs of the community reevaluated. She sees water quality emerging as one of the biggest needs.

“We should be positioned as the lead agency with all the others. We exist in all counties and have been here the longest.”

Benzie Conservation District
Board of Directors

Chris Cota	Stephen Fouch	Cheryl Kobernik	Doug and Sally Cook