Four candidates vie for obscure soil and water commission position

Oct. 22—Even the candidates for the Satilla River Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor position would describe the organization as obscure.

Before 2020, three of them didn't know it existed. What candidates Laurie Lohne, Heath Holdsworth and Glenn Cook have in common is that their first exposure to it was noticing no one else was running for the position a year ago.

Elections for county Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor position are normally held in off years, said Ron Sadowski, who was elected to the Glynn County supervisor role in 2017.

Sadowski was elected, but he's stepping aside to let one of four candidates fill the spot. He's now the appointed supervisor, a job for which the organization could not find a replacement for most of his first term as elected supervisor.

"It's made up of county representatives, the counties in the district," Sadowski said. "Basically, we promote best practices for land and water activities."

That runs the gamut from farming, agriculture and timber harvesting to overseeing dams and construction near waterways.

"A lot of it has to do with development because we don't have a large agricultural base in Glynn County," Sadowski said.

According to the agency's website, Georgia's Soil and Water Conservation Districts were brought into existence by a state law passed in 1937.

"Their original mandate was to encourage soil conservation following the Dust Bowl," according to the website. "Their mandate was later expanded to include water conservation. The districts work with private landowners to improve the state's natural resources."

The Satilla River Soil and Water Conservation District is part of the statewide Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission. Under the commission are five regions divided into 40 districts, each with a district manager. Two representatives for each of Georgia's 159 counties — one elected and one appointed — make up the bulk of the organization.

Region III includes six districts. It encompasses the coast and much of the inland Southeast, as far as Atkinson County to the west and Augusta-Richmond County to the north.

Glynn County is in the Satilla River Soil and Water Conservation District, which also includes Atkinson, Brantley, Camden, Charlton, Pierce, Ware and Wayne counties.

This year's state budget provides the SWCC with $2.28 million — over $200,000 more than the year prior, but still a small sum out of Georgia's $30.2 billion total budget.

In Glynn County, most people's exposure to the SWCC would be the local county or city planning and zoning offices.

Any time a developer files a permit to disturb more than an acre of land, the SWCC has to review the project's stormwater runoff and sediment control permits, according to Sadowski. Poorly planned drainage can easily cause flooding and carry contaminants and chemicals into waterways, while poor sediment control hurts rivers and streams.

Some have also likely come into contact with the SWCC in either in-school education programs or events like CoastFest, said Katelyn Poppell, who represents the Southeast region of the Georgia Association of Conservation Districts.

"That's where I come in, and I do it on behalf of the (Satilla) district," Poppell said. "It's a wide range of things they do, but the main thing is to promote soil and water conservation."

In effect, this means she spends a lot of time traveling Southeast Georgia to provide presentations to students and to staff informational booths. Poppell isn't employed directly by the soil and water conservation commission but by a nonprofit association of conservation districts, which offers administrative and educational support.

Robert Amos, conservation manager for the commission at the state level, said the organization also has access to federal grant money, for which it can apply on behalf of local governments and businesses.

"Each district is its kind of an unique little area," Amos said. "Each district will develop its own priorities and the commission staff tries to assist them in reaching those priorities.

"(County supervisors) are plugging into what their local needs are, and they bring that to the district board."

At the state level, the SWCC also organizes a natural resources and conservation workshop every June. It's a weeklong camp where kids learn about everything from urban ecology to wildlife and farming. Through the program, over $18,000 in scholarships are awarded annually.

"It's a running joke, but you'd be surprised how many times I hear it: 'It's so kids know that chocolate milk doesn't come from chocolate cows,'" Amos said.

In North Georgia, the SWCC is also involved in overseeing watershed dams.

Closer to home, Sadowski says that one of the biggest concerns is wild hog trapping, which is in demand in some coastal counties.

"It's bad up there (in McIntosh County)," he said. "They only got rid of theirs because a landowner decided to take out his rifle and start shooting."

That's not one of the best practices supported by the soil and water commission, however. The commission prefers to use traps, which it leases to landowners.

None of the elected positions come with any pay, of course. Members get a free meal at Captain Joe's in Waycross and a per diem for travel expenses to and from the restaurant for their monthly meetings, but that's about it.

Laurie Lohne, a local nature photographer, isn't in the race for money or a free monthly meal at Captain Joe's. She's running against Cook, Holdsworth and local contractor John Hodor. Hodor could not be reached for comment.

"The reason I'm running is because, when I was filling out my ballot in the last midterm election, there was no name representing Glynn County," Lohne said. "It's such an important position to me because I care so much about our environment. It's so beautiful and I want to preserve it.

"I guess some other people thought the same thing, and now there's four of us."

She's sat in on a few meetings and has a general idea of what she'd like to accomplish. One of the responsibilities of a supervisor is to work with other counties to allocate funds for certain projects. She feels like the organization doesn't put enough climate change education, smart forestry or wildlife management.

"I'm just a normal concerned citizen with few political aspirations," she added.

Glenn Cook is an attorney who does mediation and pro bono work, but he didn't start there. He graduated from Wake Forest University with a biology degree before joining the U.S. Navy as a pilot, eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant commander.

In the military, he earned a degree in business administration and eventually left to fly for Delta Air Lines. Along the way, he earned a law degree and retired. Jekyll Island is where he now resides.

Storm runoff and marshland conservation are two of his concerns, and both play into development along the coast. He also believes the SWCC is substantially underfunded and needs more buy-in from the state to effectively protect the environment along the Satilla River.

If elected, he said he'd work with the SWCC to put some of that extra money into bee-keeping education and support programs to get more people tending apiaries. He said that growing the bee population is good for the flora, but it also produces a very marketable product.

Educating the public on things like no-till farming and controlling invasive species can help the people of Glynn County as well, he said, although maybe not to the same degree as more rural, inland counties.

A teacher at C.B. Greer Elementary School, Heath Holdsworth is very interested in the conservation and education aspects of the job.

He also wants to get into the nitty-gritty of policy so he can offer recommendations to local governments as they shape building and development regulations. Taking a long-term look at the effects of some developments should be standard for the coast as well.

"If you're clearing 1,000 acres before a hurricane, that will end up with a lot of silt and sediment in the river," which is something the SWCC should be there to prevent, he said.

The race is nonpartisan and appears on every district's ballot. Early voting is ongoing through Nov. 4 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at three locations: the Board of Elections office at 1815 Gloucester St. in Brunswick, the Ballard Community Building at 30 Nimitz Drive and Glynn County Fire Station No. 2 at 1929 Demere Road on St. Simons Island.

Early voting will also be open at the designated polls from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and on Oct. 29.

Election Day is Nov. 8.

For more information or to check your registration status, precinct location or to request an absentee ballot, visit glynncounty.org/elections or www.mvp.sos.ga.gov. Anyone who is registered can vote at any of the three early voting locations through Nov. 4 regardless of where they live in the county.