On July 14, 1949, Earl Coe, the Secretary of State for Washington, signed a certification making the Pierce County Soil Conservation District an official organization. Over the past 70 years, much more than just our name has changed. Guy E. Mains of Lakebay, and Joel Olson of Puyallup were the original supervisors and are responsible for helping create our District. We owe them and countless others over the past 70 years a deep debt of gratitude for helping build this organization into a dynamic force for improving Pierce County’s communities and natural resources. As grateful as we are for the hard work and dedication that preceded us, we’re equally excited about the next 70 years and continuing to evolve this organization to address the challenges of our time.

PCD took on the role of coordinating the South Puget Sound Regional Envirothon competition this year, which took place on April 18th at the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. A total of 18 teams competed for the right to go to the state competition in May in Carnation. They tackled the topics of Forestry, Soil, Aquatic Ecology and Wildlife, along with this year’s current topic: Agriculture and the Environment.

Tacoma’s Science and Math Institute took first place overall for the region, and will represent Pierce County at the state competition. CASEE, hailing from Clark County, took 2nd overall, and North Thurston High School took home top honors in their county. CHOICE High School was the Mason County winner and Napavine High School will represent Lewis County at state. Congratulations to all the county winners!

Entering its 16th year, The Children’s Water Festival was held on March 19th at the University of Puget Sound. In what might be our most successful year yet since we started coordinating in 2015, roughly 700 students enjoyed a (sunny) day of learning about water and its importance. It took 120 volunteers to make it happen, and we want to thank all those who played a part in this year’s Festival. For more on this event, including pictures, visit our Environmental Education page on our website: https://piercecd.org/223/ChildrensWater-Festival

The plant sale was another great success due to wonderful community support. We couldn’t handle the volume of customers and plants without the help of all our dedicated volunteers. We missed our long-time super volunteer Keith Chadd this year, seen here at the 2017 plant sale, but other folks stepped up and we managed one of our biggest sales to date.