Long before most of the state was concerned about the Chesapeake Bay, Carroll County farmers were taking steps to help protect it.
Most of them probably didn't know it, said Charles E. "Ed" Null Jr., manager of the Carroll County Soil Conservation District.
But for 50 years, employees of the district have been teaching farmers methods for protecting land, water and, ultimately, the bay.
Tonight, there will be a celebration of the district's efforts and its history as Carroll County's oldest environmental organization at Wilhelm's Ltd. Catering in Westminster.
"We're going to talk about conservation in the early years," Mr. Null said. "We're going to have displays, a slide show and talk about milestones of the program."
When the federal soil conservation program was begun in the 1930s, people were most concerned about the soil being kicked up in huge windstorms crossing the country.
"Around the Depression, with the advent of the tractor, farmers were plowing up acre after acre of land," Mr. Null said. "There was too much open land. The Dust Bowl blew sediment clear across the country."
Hugh H. Bennett, who became the first head of the federal Soil Conservation Service, got approval for the agency and Congress' attention by carefully timing his speech to coincide with a dust storm blowing into Washington from the Midwest, Mr. Null said.
As a result, farmers -- through local districts headed by area farmers -- were encouraged to use contour farming -- planting crops in curves that follow the land rather than in straight rows.
Topsoil is trapped within the curves instead of washing into streams or blowing away. Since 1942 in Carroll County, 54,325 acres has been planted using that method, Mr. Null said.
"One of the first contour strips was out on Old New Windsor Road, right before the livestock auction," he said.
Newspapers at the time reported that John Cotton, an extension conservationist, had a demonstration on June 9, 1941, for nine farmers, Mr. Null said.
"It was difficult to get farmers to do it at first," he said. "They always wanted to put their rows in as straight as they could, and this was everything but straight.
"It took a while, but we finally got them to work with that."
Through the years, the agency took a leading role in sediment control. In the early 1970s, with the advent of regulations requiring sediment-control plans for any construction, the agency was given the responsibility of reviewing all applications, Mr. Null said.
The agency has since reviewed 9,546 plans in Carroll County, he said.
"That's when my position came into being," Mr. Null said, noting that Wayne Kurtz was the district manager from 1971 to early 1974. "We needed someone to administer the program."
Clean water became an issue during the early 1980s under the local Rural Clean Water Program, which had begun in 1979.
A $4 million grant for the protection of 110,000 acres surrounding Big and Little Pipe, Cranberry and Hull creeks was approved by Congress.
One of 13 programs in the nation at that time, the project had been given the highest priority by the state Soil Conservation Committee.
"Carroll was fortunate to be a part of that program," Mr. Null said.
Over the program's 10-year span, about 149 Carroll County farmers put in $1.1 million and earned $3.1 million by implementing best-management practices.
"Today, with that Rural Clean Water Act work, there is still a strong emphasis on water quality," he said.
Local agency officials also sparked interest in creating the Piney Run reservoir in the early 1960s, Mr. Null said.
"The board in 1964 was concerned about the water supply, the erosion problem and a solution to the recreation problem," he said. "They got the ball rolling with the county watershed project, and Piney Run came into being."
With money from the state Soil Conservation Committee, the Carroll Soil Conservation District, the county commissioners, the Carroll County Parks and Recreation Board, the Carroll County Sanitary Commission and the Maryland Water Resources Administration pursued the project.
Work on the Piney Run dam was completed in 1974, and the park was dedicated in 1976.
Most recently, the district has been directly involved in efforts to preserve the Chesapeake Bay and has participated in strategy meetings concerning tributaries over the past 18 months, Mr. Null said.
The meetings -- which resulted in a management plan for each Maryland stream that flows into the bay -- studied the sources of excess nutrients, including fertilizers and animal wastes, that encourage the growth of algae in the bay, he said.
This algae consume oxygen dissolved in the water, and animals and other plants in the bay eventually suffocate and die.
"We've been telling farmers it is to their advantage to keep every nutrient on the farm," Mr. Null said.
Agency members are working to bring farmers voluntarily into compliance with proposed state regulations, which are intended to reduce the nutrients entering the bay by 40 percent, Mr. Null said.
"In the future, we will be doing our part to work with the farming community and the urban community to meet that goal," he said. "The district for many years has not been in favor of any mandatory programs.
"Maryland has been very successful in getting conservation on the ground without mandatory programs."