Daniel Boone Soil & Water Conservation District

Contact Information

OSM/VISTA: Vacant
Supervisor: Shawn Morris
Sponsoring Organization: Daniel Boone Soil and Water Conservation District: Lee County
Address: Route 2 Box 2010 Jonesville, VA 24263
Phone: 276.346.1658
E-Mail: shawn.morris@nacdnet.net
Website: http://www.danielbooneswcd.org
U.S. Congressional Districts: 9th
County: Lee

The Daniel Boone Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD) was founded in 1952 and is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia whose boundaries are the same as those for Lee County. The District is governed by a five member Board of Directors that receives advice from six Associate Directors.

All Lee County citizens can have a voice in resource and conservation planning by attending monthly District meetings, communicating their concerns and participating in District programs. Daniel Boone SWCD is involved in a wide range of programs encouraging community participation in conserving and protecting soil, water and other related natural resources. The vision of the Daniel Boone SWCD is to improve the quality of life within the watershed by impeding erosion, water pollution and other forms of land degradation through technical and educational assistance. These programs are supported by the Lee County Board of Supervisors, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation ö Division of Soil and Water Conservation and technical support from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and other partners.

The purpose of the Daniel Boone SWCD is to give local citizens the ability to work on conservation problems at a local level. We want to help provide the necessary technical expertise to assist the community in identifying, discussing and solving local conservation issues. The community constituents are farmers, homeowners, watershed organizations, environmental groups, developers, teachers, youths, local businesses, agencies, civic organizations, elected officials and their staffs and other residents interested in conservation.

There are five major goals that OSM/VISTA strives to achieve. The first of these goals is education outreach. Achievement of this goal is dependent upon assisting Daniel Boone Soil and Water Conservation Districtās education coordinator with school presentations and finding innovative ways of information the public (citizens, schools, etc.) about environmental problems such as straight pipes, acid mine drainage, sediment, agriculture and other issues. Education outreach is also accomplished by assisting the District with educational workshops for local citizens on various topics and assisting local residents with forming and maintaining local watershed groups (like the Powell River Watershed, Indian Creek Watershed Action Group, etc), providing relative information and coordinating meetings and announcements.

The second major goal is informing the community via submitting press releases to community papers, newscasts and radio broadcasts to inform the public about meetings, workshops and ongoing projects. Other ways the OSM/VISTA goes about trying to inform the community is by creating and distributing relevant brochures, fact sheets, power point presentations and other informational material that are relevant to the issues of concern in Lee County, serving as a contact for community members interested in projects and in participating and assisting the District with maintenance of District website.

Thirdly, the OSM/VISTA helps to accomplish the goal of assisting in watershed clean-up projects, which consists of assisting the District and watershed groups with planning clean-up projects and recruiting community volunteers to participate in appropriate clean-up projects. Also, the OSM/VISTA assists with updating existing illegal dump inventories and the mapping of such sites and assists District with assessing sewage problem inventory and management (working with the Health Dept. and Planning District Commission), as well as assisting with jump-starting the county recycling program and recruiting volunteers.

The fourth major goal is community capacity building and revitalization. To carry out this goal, the OSM/VISTA must attend all applicable events in the watershed (festivals, fairs, etc.) with District related watershed information available to the public, assist in completing watershed action plans involving total maximum daily load implementation, NRCS programs, DCR programs (i.e.: WQIF grants), etc. and recruiting volunteers for watershed coalition projects focusing on community involvement. The OSM/VISTA must also research potential fundraising and grant opportunities for various projects and events primarily in the North Fork and Upper Powell watersheds and support economic development and tourism projects that can be directly related to conservation issues.

The fifth and last major goal is scientific research and implementation. The OSM/VISTA is expected to assist the District with updating existing watershed information, maps, etc. and become certified to perform VA Save Our Streams monitoring; host at least one training/certification workshop for interested residents, teachers, agency representatives and other citizens. The OSM/VISTA also works with local DMME and OSM offices to establish AMD treatment systems and AML reclamation projects, assists DMME and OSM with monitoring and assessing AMD sites in North Fork Powell watershed and inventories severely eroded stream bank locations. Also, the OSM/VISTA works with landowners and secures funding for at least one stream bank restoration/stabilization project.

• Daniel Boone Soil & Water Conservation District
• U.S.D.A Natural Resources Conservation Service
• Lee County Board of Supervisors
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
• VA Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME)
• Office of Surface Mining (OSM)
• Lee County Water Quality Partnership (LCWQP)
• Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife
• Martin Creek Watershed Citizens for Clean Water
• Hands Across the Mountain
• Upper Tennessee River Roundtable
• Canaan Valley Institute
• Black Diamond Resource Conservation & Development
• >U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Virginia Dept of Forestry
• Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
• Division of Natural Heritage
• Town of Pennington Gap
• Grabeelās IGA
• Food City
• Virginia Department of Transportation
• Powell Valley News
• Lee County Litter Control
• Virginia Mining Association, Inc.
• Lone Mountain Processing, Inc.
• U. S. D. A. Farm Service Agency
• Southeast Aquaculture Learning Center
• Portal 31 & Kentucky Coal Mining Museum