About Resource Conservation and Development
About RC&D
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  • Mission
  • Vision
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Resource Conservation and Development


Our History
RC&D began in the 1960's as a pilot USDA umbrella effort under which a number of conservation and development activities might be performed in geographic areas where major economic and social downturns had occured. Conditions in these rural areas were grim, as were their prospects for the future.

When the report on rural poverty came out in 1967, there was a strong correlation between the location and designation of rural poverty counties identified by the commission and the recently identified RC&D areas, both authorized pilot areas and applicant counties.

Some credit the late Gladwin Young (1900-1973), Deputy Administrator of Soil Conservation Service, as having observed a multitude of unsolved natural resource problems in rural America at the same time as the number of farmers and farms were disappearing.

Young believed that areas served by RC&D Councils possessed unused resources. He also thought that significant economic impacts could be generated by infusions of capital and technical assistance. These sizable impacts have not occured because large amounts of capital have not been provided to RC&D as a national strategy. However, the RC&D program has been significantly successful in terms of providing local people with the means to solve problems and create wealth from natural resources at the local level.


Our Council and Staff

Legal Sponsors
Council Members
Accomack County
Board of Supervisors


Northampton County
Board of Supervisors




Accomack-Northampton
Planning District Commission



Eastern Shore of Virginia
Soil and Water
Conservation District 		Jane Corson-Lassiter
Jack Van Dame
Vacant

W. Beverly Fletcher
Peter Turlington
Donna Bozza
Dave Harris
Jon Sundstrom

Brenda E. Holden
Raymond Rosenberger
Sandra Hart Mears
Vacant

Ruth Boettcher
Edwin R. Long
Executive Committee
         Chairman              Ruth Boettcher
         Vice-Chairman       Raymond Rosenberger
         Secretary              Sandra Hart-Mears
         Treasurer              Jane Corson-Lassiter
Council Staff
Virginia Association
Delegates
Marian Huber
Coordinator

Stacia Childers
Administrative Assistant		Jane Corson-Lassiter
Brenda E. Holden
Raymond Rosenberger

Vision
The Vision of the Eastern Shore Resource Conservation and Development Council is to live in harmony with the environment by preserving, protecting, and improving it.

To preserve the Eastern Shore as it was in the past, with a sense of safety, rural character, family farms, aquaculture business, and preserving the rich history of the Shore.

To improve education by offering job and vocational training, and utilizing a go-to-school/go-to-work program.

To offer adequate and affordable housing to residents of the Shore, abolish slums and replace with innovative housing.

To encourage self-sufficiency by supporting self-employment and offering a variety of types of employment, all of which would be environmentally friendly.

Manage resources by utilizing wastewater treatment Shorewide, by controlling development and controlling the quantity and quality of water used.

Support and maintain public transportation.

Control taxes, therefore protecting the rural character of the Shore, farmland, and family.


Bus tour of Chincoteague
Wildlife Refuge.

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