Agriculture, Soil Health and Water Quality Through the Ages
Virginia Chapter SWCS Fall Meeting
Tuesday, November 16, 2021; 9:30 am to 1:30 pm
Education Center
Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier
6125 Boydton Plank Road, Petersburg, VA 23803
| 9:30-9:35 | Welcome: Kathy Holm, President of Virginia Chapter SWCS |
| 9:35-9:45 | Pamplin Historical Park Overview: Tim Talbott, Pamplin Historical Park,Director of Education, Interpretation, Visitor Services & Collections |
| 9:45-10:45 | Civil War Era Agriculture and Soil Conservation: Dr. Erin Mauldin, Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of South Florida – St. Petersburg |
| 10:45-11:00 | Break |
| 11:00-11:15 | What’s New with the Revitalized Virginia Soil Health Coalition: Mary Sketch, Virginia Soil Health Coalition Coordinator |
| 11:15-12:00 | Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan Update: James Martin, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality |
| 12:00-12:15 | Business Meeting: Kathy Holm, President of Virginia Chapter SWCS |
| 12:15-1:15 | Lunch and Awards Program: Cory Hoar,President of Virginia Chapter SWCS |
| 1:15-1:20 | Closing remarks: Cory Hoar, President of Virginia Chapter SWCS |
| 1:20-5:00 | Tour the Pamplin Historical Park on your own or with SWCS Group (park pass included with your meeting registration) |
Registration is $25 ($20 students) and includes lunch and a park pass, which allows you to tour the park and museum until 5:00 pm.
REGISTRATION FORM (click here)
Speaker Bios
Kathy Holm is the President of the Virginia Chapter SWCS and the Assistant State Conservationist for Field Operations in Area 1 of Virginia. She manages seven field offices from northern Virginia through the Shenandoah Valley for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Prior to that, she was an NRCS Resource Conservationist for three years and RC&D Coordinator with NRCS for almost eight years. She was Director of Public Policy for the Valley Conservation Council, a local land trust, for five years.
Tim Talbot Tim Talbott is the Director of Education, Interpretation, Visitor Services, and Collections at Pamplin Historical Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier. He received his master’s degree in Public History from Appalachian State University and has bachelor’s degrees in History from East Tennessee State University and Communications from Milligan College.
Dr. Erin Mauldin is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Florida – St. Petersburg. She is the author of the award-winning book, “Unredeemed Land: An Environmental History of Civil War and Emancipation in the Cotton South”, now available in paperback from Oxford University Press. She is also the co-editor of the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Global Environmental History and co-edits the book series, “Environmental History and the American South,” at the University of Georgia Press.
Mary Sketch is the Coordinator of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition and is based in Richmond, Virginia. She has experience working with collaboratives and coalitions across the country at the intersection of economic and environmental wellbeing with a focus on working lands and rural communities. Prior to working with the Virginia Soil Health Coalition, she worked at the Center for Rural Strategies where she helped coordinate the Rural Assembly, a coalition of rural stakeholders across the US. She received her Master’s degree in Fish and Wildlife Conservation from Virginia Tech and her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Brown University. Through her graduate research she worked directly with agricultural producers and conservation practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of how farmers and ranchers approach conservation and land management decisions.
James Martin is the Chesapeake Bay Program Manager for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality where his work includes management of Chesapeake Bay Grants, WIP and 2-year Milestones development and reporting and coordination of partner agencies for WIP implementation. His education in Marine Science is supplemented by work experience with the Army Corps of Engineers, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Coast Guard and 20 years with the Commonwealth of Virginia working on Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts. James is the current Co-Chair of the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Water Quality Goal Implementation Team where he works in cooperation with the Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions, EPA and numerous Bay stakeholders to chart the course for Bay restoration. James enjoys spending time on the water boating, swimming, fishing and exploring the beauty and bounty of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.
Cory Hoar is the incoming President of Virginia Chapter SWCS and a Conservation Specialist with the Virginia Dare Soil and Water Conservation District, which serves the cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. Cory is involved in the Agriculture, Technical, Virginia Agriculture Cost-Share Program and Virginia Cost-Assistance Program. He also serves as the President for the Virginia Association of Conservation District Employees.
About the Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier
What began in 1991 as an effort to preserve a threatened Civil War battlefield near Petersburg, Virginia, has evolved into one of America’s finest history and heritage travel destinations. Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier is a 424-acre historical campus that features world-class museums, antebellum homes, a National Historic Landmark Civil War battlefield, a slave life exhibit, educational programs, and special events. It has been called “the new crown jewel of Civil War sites in America” by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson.
In the early 1990’s, a tract of land in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, became available for purchase. The tract included a stretch of well-preserved Civil War earthworks constructed by Confederate troops of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. It was on this site on April 2, 1865, that 14,000 Union soldiers under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant broke through Lee’s defensive line, ending the nine-month campaign for Petersburg and setting in motion the events leading to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House one week later.
The Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (the forerunner of today’s Civil War Trust) alerted Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr., a businessman and philanthropist living in Portland, Oregon, that the land, which had belonged to his ancestors during the Civil War, could be purchased and preserved. Dr. Pamplin operates the R.B. Pamplin Corporation, a Fortune 400 company. He also manages the interests of the R.B. Pamplin Foundation, which provides significant funding for charitable and educational causes.
Dr. Pamplin saw the purchase of his ancestral lands as not only an opportunity to preserve but also to educate. He acquired the original one-hundred acres of historic land and funded the construction of a $5,000,000 development, including an interpretive center and a one-mile trail, which opened in June 1994 as Pamplin Park Civil War Site. Soon thereafter, the Pamplin Foundation purchased an adjacent parcel that contained Tudor Hall, the plantation home of the Pamplins’ ancestors, and authorized its restoration.
SWCS Membership (join online at: https://www.swcs.org/get-involved/join/)
The Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) is the premier international organization for professionals who practice and advance the science and art of natural resource conservation. We believe sustainable land and water management is essential to the continued security of the earth and its people. Our goal is to cultivate an organization of informed, dynamic individuals whose contributions create a bright future for agriculture, the environment, and society.
SWCS MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS
· Opportunities to network with and learn from professionals from many disciplines through local, regional, and international meetings.
· Interaction and education through local chapter membership in the United States and Canada.
· Subscription to the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, a multidisciplinary journal of natural resources conservation research, practice, policy, and perspectives.
· Effective representation in policy circles on environmental, agricultural, and conservation issues.
· Subscription to a monthly newsletter of Society and chapter news and networking opportunities.
· Subscription to Conservation NewsBriefs, a weekly compilation of the latest media coverage of soil and water conservation research and policy.
· Member-only savings on books and conference or workshop registration fees.
Virginia Chapter Soil and Water Conservation Society 