In the 1930’s, a series of dust storms plagued the drought-ridden United States of America, caused in part by decades and decades of poor management of topsoil and exploitative agricultural practices. As one remedy, new arms of state governments were created nationwide, including the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District.
“We were formed in the 1930’s out of the Dust Bowl and one of the primary differences with a conversation district versus a non-profit or another government agency is that we have local elected directors,” said Anne Coates, the executive director of the TJSWCD.
The Thomas Jefferson district has been in operation since 1939. Coates and other staff members gave an overview to the Nelson County Board of Supervisors on January 9.
Mark Campbell and David L. Collins won election in November to the two seats that represent Nelson County. Soil and Water Conservation Districts do not have any taxation authority, but do help distribute revenues from state and federal sources.
Coates said the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District is geographically the second largest in the district.
Luke Longanecker is the conservation programs manager.
“What I do and what my team does is that we work one on one primarily with farmers and landowners in Nelson County and three other counties in our district to get to know them, and their operations, what’s working, what’s not working, and try to come up with technical resources, grant funds, and educate them a lot on best practice, and just try to help them improve their herd, their land management, anything we can assist them with,” Longanecker said.
Part of the mission is to help implement efforts to conserve soil and improve water quality. For instance, there are funds available for farmers to keep livestock out of waterways using exclusion fences.
“I do want to highlight that all of these programs are voluntary,” Longanecker said. “Farmers call us for assistance. We are non-regulatory and we do not want to get regulatory. We are here to help and answer questions and provide assistance in whatever we can.”
Since 1998, the District has provided $2.9 million in cost-share funds for Nelson County landowners, which translates to over 55 miles of stream bank protected, 353 acres of trees planted, and 6,690 acres of cover crop planted. All of that funding goes into the local economy.
“It’s an economic boost in a lot of ways from farmers to contractors to well-drillers to Lovingston From Supply to the Colleen Feed and Seed to the hardware store in Nelson and beyond,” Longanecker said.
Landowners also provided their share of funding as well. At the moment there are 36 approved projects in Nelson totaling $1,271,120.
Other projects the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District is involved with include a project called a TMDL for the Tye River. That stands for Total Maximum Daily Load and it is a way of determining how to improve water quality by restricting pollutants from entering waterways.
“We were able to work with [the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality] to get them to provide a stable funding source for not only agricultural but for septic [projects] as well,” Longanecker said. “That is repairs, replacements, connections to public sewer.”
That reduces the amount of nitrogen that enters the watershed.
Supervisor Jesse Rutherford said the conversation about septic fields is important in Nelson County.
“One unique attribute that we have is that we require 100 percent reserve drainfields and for Board members who don’t understand that, that basically means there’s a 100 percent reserve in the event the first fails,” Rutherford said. “It’s a very important practice because a lot of counties I think are at 50 percent or 75 percent and if you have a situation where it’s a three bedroom septic system but you have eight people in one house, that reserve is going to become very important because it takes into consideration of expansion.”
Coates said there are also educational programs to help students understand the importance of being a good steward of the land. There’s also a program to help homeowners pay for improved stormwater management systems.
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