The Monacan Soil & Water Conservation District was established in 1972 and serves both Goochland and Powhatan. The MSWCD is overseen and funded in part by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, additional funding is provided by our two counties.
The MSWCD board is governed by six Directors: Four publicly elected (two for each county), one appointed and the Virginia Cooperative Extension Agent serving locally. Board meetings are held every third Monday alternating between Goochland and Powhatan and the public is welcome to attend. The MSWCD is even allowed to receive charitable contributions under Internal Revenue Code 170a.
The Mission of the Monacan Soil & Water Conservation District is to provide technical assistance, education and leadership to improve natural resource conservation in Powhatan and Goochland Counties.
Keith Burgess
The offices of the The MSWCD have recently moved to 2748 Dogtown Road, Goochland, Virginia. There you will find the people who run the day to day operations of the District: Keith Burgess District Manager/Conservation Specialist, Betty McCracken, Conservation Specialist/Educator, Colton Sullivan, Agricultural Conservationist, and Lissy Hamilton Office Manager/Administrator/Treasurer. The directors are unpaid volunteers.
The MSWCD derives its name from the Monacan Indian Nation that inhabited Central Virginia at the time of the first contact with the English.
SOURCES:
Virginia Soil & Water Conservation District
MSWCD Presentation by District Manager, Keith Burgess.
Monacan Indian Nation, Wikipedia
Directors sworn into office, Laura McFarland News Editor​, Richmond Times Dispatch, Dec 31, 2015
What is Monacan SWCD?
The Monacan Soil & Water Conservation District is one of 47 soil and water conservation districts in Virginia composing the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts (VASWCD) a voluntary, nongovernmental association of Virginia’s districts. The VASWCD is a private nonprofit association.
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The Virginia SWCD has its roots in the 1930s, The dust bowls that affected the the Midwest were spectacular and motivated communities to take action. The erosion in Virginia was not so much wind born but caused by water run-off, less spectacular, but taking away top soil from the land and choking the creeks and James River with mud.