History

1956: Board Meeting with County Agent Robert G. Miller in foreground. Background L-R: Dean Richardson, Roscoe Purnell, Levin Cooper, Jay French, Paul Widdowson, Jr.
1954: District Equipment operators going to work.

The Wicomico Soil Conservation District is celebrating its 79th anniversary serving the people of Wicomico County on May 22, 2021.  Soil Conservation Districts were born in 1937 when the President of the United States recommended that each State Government pass legislation enabling farmers and landowners the ability to form units called Soil Conservation Districts.

      An application for certificate was filed by Roscoe Purnell and Jay French to then Maryland Secretary of State Thomas Elmo Jones and the Maryland State Executive Department.  A Certificate of Organization was issued on May 22, 1942 and Purnell and French were appointed supervisors by the State Soil Conservation Committee.  The first regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors was held on August 7, 1942 with the following members present:  Dean W. Richardson, Willards; Roscoe Purnell, Powellville; Jay French, Quantico; Ernest Farlow, Pittsville; and George H. Moore, Tyaskin.  J.P. Brown, County Extension Agent, was secretary.

      The Wicomico Soil Conservation District is a political subdivision of the State of Maryland.  It is a self- governing body administered by a board of five supervisors:  one endorsed by the Wicomico Farm Bureau, one by the University of Maryland Extension System, one by County Appointment, and two by an at-large system and approved by the State Soil Conservation Committee.

       Throughout its many years of existence, the District has cooperated with Federal agencies such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; State agencies such as Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Department of the Environment and the University of Maryland Extension System and many others.  Its purpose is to provide a wide array of conservation programs to achieve the same common goal today as when it was first organized…to provide conservation assistance to agricultural and urban land utilization to promote the protection and enhancement of natural resources in Wicomico County and the State of Maryland.