Three Incumbents Are Shoo-Ins for Three Open Seats

All Express Care for the Environment

Three environmentally conscious incumbent candidates are shoo-ins for the three open seats on the Prince William County Soil and Water Conservation Board.

Vice Chairman Matthew A. Brooks and board members Austin B. Haynes Jr. and Alex Pendleton Lucas III are seeking to stay on the board for four-year terms.

The Soil and Water Conservation Board teaches farmers conservation principles and helps them get state funding and grants to enact those principles. The board, which is a state entity but locally funded, also focuses on public education. The group's most well-known activity is Farm Field Day, when 500 area schoolchildren go to the county fairgrounds to learn about animals, soil and trees.

Brooks, 45, is an environmental engineer at the Upper Occoquan Sewage Authority and has served a full term on the board. He has lived in the county since 1971.

"When it is a farmer-based focus, they are more than willing to take the advice we give and instill some of the practices in order to save money and protect the environment. They care for the land," Brooks said. "As we move into a more bedroom-based community, people aren't so tied to the land, and that can pose a problem."

The board needs to adjust to the county's growth while still educating the public on how to best take care of the land, he said.

Haynes, who works at a real estate company, started on the board in January as an associate director with an interest in urban conservation. He was made a full board member this summer. The 49-year-old Baltimore native moved to the county two years ago and had spent 22 years in Manassas.

"In urban areas, we should look at extra storm water guidelines for extra runoff of fertilizer and things along those lines," Haynes said. The county could go beyond the standards set by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, he said. Haynes also said he wants more local organizations to partner with the board to expand its efforts.

Lucas, 46, has been on the board for one year. Since age 9, he lived on a farm in the Gainesville area and spent his childhood "being in the woods and being in the environment," which he said he learned to appreciate as an adult. The recently retired Army lieutenant colonel was an engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and now runs construction businesses.

His work on the board "is my way of serving my community after serving my country," Lucas said.

He said he is concerned about the wooded areas "constantly being downsized in our county" and hopes to expand on the work being done in the schools to create a community-wide focus on the environment.