Blair Gordon
Soil and Water Conservation District Operations Coordinator
Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation – Division of Soil and Water Conservation
My Bio: I serve as the Soil and Water Conservation District Operations Coordinator for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. I earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science from the University of Tennessee—Go VOLS!—and a master’s in extension education from the University of Florida. A seventh- generation Virginian, I returned home after school and spent a few years lobbying for the agribusiness industry before joining DCR. I’ve been with the agency for 12 years, first in the field and now in the state office. I live in rural Caroline County in a 145-year-old farmhouse with my husband, two kids, a giant dog, four cats, 20 chickens, and a garden I am always trying to keep up with.
The event, person, or experience that sparked my interest in pursuing a conservation career is a study abroad semester in Australia! My study abroad office registered me for the wrong courses, so I ended up taking whatever random classes were available. One of those was a biology class that re-ignited my interest in animals and the natural world.
One challenge our agency is actively working through right now is capacity for a growing program. Our agricultural cost-share program has seen exponential growth in state-supported programmatic funding in recent years. This has brought challenges in fully supporting the Soil and Water Conservation District staff implementing the program on the ground, particularly through technical and administrative training. We’ve been working to increase our staff to provide adequate support, especially for our in-house conservation planning certification and engineering job approval authority programs.
The conservationist I most admire (past or present) is Honestly, today’s farmers are the most inspiring conservationists I’ve ever met. Here in Virginia, we have some of the oldest farmland in the country and some of the original families are still farming it! Not only do our farmers understand the critical importance of taking care of their land for productivity, but they truly love landscape of Virginia and the culture that is shaped by it—from the watermen in Chesapeake Bay, to the row crop farmers of the east, to the traditions of tobacco, peanuts, and cotton, to the rolling hills of the valley speckled by livestock, and the gentle climb of the mountains reflecting a soft blue hue from the forests. The landscape has shaped our people as a Commonwealth, and without it, we lose a part of who we are and rich history from which we came. The desire to protect what we have runs deep in all Virginians, but our farmers are the heart of the land. Their passion for protecting it is unmeasurable.
The craziest or most unusual day at work I remember was taking a group of high school kids down the river. I helped a SWCD with a watershed adventure camp for a week , which culminated with a float down the river. Adults were in kayaks supervising while the kids floated down river in tubes. It was a lot of fun.
A hobby or interest people might not expect me to have is knitting. It keeps my hands busy when I need to sit still for longer periods of time, like during kids’ sports practices, family movie night, etc. I just can’t sit still and it helps!
I’m more of a morning person, 100%!
Ask me about SWCD Operations. In Virginia, SWCDs are independent political entities but the majority of their operational support comes from state funds through grant agreements with DCR. It is part of my responsibility to provide operational support and training to Districts to ensure state taxpayer dollars are properly managed. Striking the balance between oversight and partnership is critical and requires understanding how SWCDs operate. There are significant variations between SWCDs based on geographic territory, number of staff, level of experience, how involved Directors (Supervisors) are, and other funding sources and programs. I’ve spent more than a decade working with and learning about each of Virginia’ 47 SWCDs.