Governor Beverly Perdue recently proclaimed the month of August as “Soil and Water Conservation Awareness Month” in North Carolina.
Soil and Water Conservation districts and their governing boards of supervisors were formed nationwide out of concern for the nation’s soil and water resources. This concern grew out of the devastating Dust Bowl in the west, severe water erosion in the south and other conservation problems of the 1930s and earlier. Legislation adopted by individual states, beginning in 1937, formed local Soil and Water Conservation Districts of which there are now 96 in North Carolina.
Dr. Hugh Hammond Bennett, a North Carolina native from Anson County, was instrumental in coordinating national efforts toward solving the critical conservation problems that the country faced.  Dr. Bennett, known internationally as the “Father of Soil and Water Conservation,” can be credited with laying the foundation for the soil and water conservation programs of today.  Through the efforts of Bennett and his close working relationship with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a model law known as the Standard State Soil Conservation Districts Law was drafted which would enable states to create local soil and water conservation districts.
The purpose of these districts was to provide local input and direction to the fledging federal conservation programs that were administered by the USDA-Soil Conservation Service, which were established two years earlier in 1935.  On Feb. 27, 1937, President Roosevelt corresponded with state governors across the United States, urging each state to adopt legislation similar to the “model law.” That same year, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a soil and water conservation districts law known as NC General Statute 139, and the Brown Creek Soil and Water Conservation District, in the home county of Dr. Bennett, was chartered on Aug. 4, 1937.  This district was the first Soil and Water Conservation District organized in the United States. By 1947, all of the other states and the territories of Hawaii and Alaska had passed legislation creating local districts.
Soil and water conservation has a long history in Polk County and has involved many people.  It began on the local level by Polk County Mutual Soil Conservation Association, Inc. and was formed June 9, 1936. The original conservation district was known as the Broad River Soil and Water Conservation District and included all or portions of the following counties: Cleveland County, Polk County and Rutherford County. Early officers included: C. A. Jolley, S. J. Fagan, J. H. Gibbs Q. M. Powell and W. D. Westbrooks. The current Polk Soil and Water Conservation District was formed in September 1961.
Today, the 96 North Carolina Soil and Water Districts in North Carolina serve more than 85,000 school children and adults each year through education efforts. In addition, Soil and Water Conservation Districts are instrumental in improving the state’s natural resources by providing technical assistance to landowners to help them solve their natural resource problems through voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs.
Polk County’s recent accomplishments include stream bank restorations throughout the county, including the Pacolet River. Every year Polk County Soil and Water works with different farmers to assist them with fencing animals out of the streams, constructing chemical ag. buildings, as well as implementing erosion planning.
– article submitted by Sandra Reid