Richmond hosts meeting, honored as Soil and Water Conservation District of the Year

HAMLET— The Richmond County Soil and Water Conservation District was awarded District of the Year for Area VII during a meeting Tuesday at Cole Auditorium.

Jeff Joyner, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, accepted the plaque in front of a crowd of more than 50 other supervisors from the nine-county area, which also includes Bladen, Columbus, Harnett, Hoke, Robeson, Sampson and Scotland counties.

Mangum farmer Jim Chandler servers as the area chairman and secretary/treasurer for the Richmond District.

“It is a difficult time for Soil and Water Conservation as we continue to recover from the wrath of hurricanes and devastating floods,” Chandler wrote in a welcoming letter included with the agenda and minutes from the last meeting. “Our organization has confronted difficult times before, but never so much in so few years.”

Most of the counties in Area VII were hit hard by both Hurricanes Matthew and Florence, less that two years apart.

The world’s first district, the Brown Creek Soil and Water Conservation District, was established in 1937 in neighboring Anson County. The districts administer state and federal programs to help landowners conserve soil and water resources in their respective counties.

Following the first break, attendees were given several statistics from the 2018 Strategic Visioning Summary by Michelle Lovejoy, executive director of the N.C. Foundation of Soil and Water Conservation Districts. According to a survey, non-livestock agricultural producers are the most served demographic, while non-agriculture land users are the most underserved.

After lunch, Dr. Bridget Lassiter, weed specialist with the N.C. Department of Agriculture, detailed several invasive plant species including: cogongrass, which burns extremely hot, is a danger to forests and has been spreading northward from Florida since 2010; and floating heart, an aquatic plant that can take over a pond within a few years and takes longer to eradicate.

Richard Whisnant from the UNC School of Government in Chapel Hill gave an overview on complex legal history of water rights and responsibilities. 

The attendees also heard from representatives of FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration.