Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: June 2, 2009 <br />Action Agen a <br />Item No. ~- ~ <br />SUBJECT: Soil and Water District /ERCD Partnership <br />DEPARTMENT: ERCD, S&W PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Staff Memorandum <br />Soil and Water Board of Supervisors <br />May 28 Soil and Water Board Action <br />Organizational Chart <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Laura Blackmon, 245-2300 <br />David Stancil, 245-2598 <br />Brent Bogue, 245-2750 <br />PURPOSE: To formalize existing arrangements for administrative oversight of the Orange Soil <br />and Water District and create the District as an Office affiliated with the Environment and <br />Resource Conservation Department. <br />BACKGROUND: Each North Carolina county has, by General Statute, an associated Soil and <br />Water District. Soil and Water Districts were formed during the Great Depression to help <br />address soil conservation and cropland erosion issues with agricultural operations. Over the <br />decades, Soil and Water Districts have worked with farmers and rural landowners to address a <br />variety of issues such as best management practices, federal cost-share programs, farm <br />conservation plans, and design and monitoring of animal waste lagoons. The Orange District <br />consists of four staff persons, two State/County funded and two County funded. A USDA <br />District Conservationist is also assigned to the office and serves both Orange and Person <br />counties. District staff reports to an elected/appointed five-member Board of Supervisors. <br />Over the past decade in particular, the District has broadened its scope of activity to address <br />other areas within its charter from the State including such functions as well abandonment, <br />environmental education, agricultural drought response and agricultural conservation <br />easements. Since 2002 the District, USDA and the County's Environment and Resource <br />Conservation Department (ERCD) have partnered to leverage more than $3 million in USDA <br />grant funds for conservation easements on nine County farms, conserving over 1,000 acres of <br />Orange County prime and threatened farmland in perpetuity. District and ERCD staff <br />increasingly collaborate on environmental education, drought education, watershed protection <br />and groundwater quality and quantity programs. <br />In the last several months, administrative changes from USDA and the need to formalize the <br />mutual-support arrangement between these two similar and co-located organizations has <br />become increasingly necessary. A background memorandum is attached that provides <br />