PORT TOWNSEND — Al Latham, retired manager of the Jefferson County Conservation District, will be the speaker at the Jefferson County Historical Society First Friday Lecture this week.
The program will begin at 7 p.m. in Port Townsend’s historic City Council chamber, 540 Water St.
Admission is by donation. Proceeds support historical society programs.
Latham’s topic will be “A Short History of the Jefferson County Conservation District 1946-2011.”
Latham, who has lived in Jefferson County since 1979, worked for the district from 1990-2011.
He was honored as District Manager of the Year in 2011 by the Washington State Conservation District and continues to promote conservation as an associate supervisor for the district.
He will talk about the district, which is a special-purpose political subdivision overseen by the Washington State Conservation Commission.
Its mission is “to take available technical, financial and educational resources — whatever their source — and focus or coordinate them to meet the needs of the local land user.”
The county district was formed in October 1946 as the East Jefferson County Soil Conservation District.
Some of the first issues encountered were soil fertility, weeds, water supply and drainage.
By 1954, the district owned a grain drill, a lime spreader, a seedbed packer, a trailer and two fertilizer spreaders.
Test nurseries were created on farms in the Chimacum area in the 1950s.
In the late 1960s and ’70s, stream restoration and fish and wildlife habitat enhancement became the focus.
The challenge remains to protect the natural resources while giving land users sound practices and techniques by which to live.
Latham was raised in central New York and is a graduate of the New York State Ranger School in Forest Technology.
For more information about the conservation district, contact the office at 205 W. Patison St., Port Hadlock, via 360-385-4105 or www.jeffersoncd.org.