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Lancaster County Conservation Disctrict: 75 Years of Change: Lancaster County Conservation District · Clean Water Conversations

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_04: Hello everyone and welcome to Clean Water Conversations, the podcast where we have casual discussions about creating clean and clear waterways right here in Langster County.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_04: I'm Ken.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_03: Hey everybody, I'm Allison.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_04: We are almost at the end of 2025.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_04: Can you believe it?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: December.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_03: I know, it's crazy.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_03: How'd that happen?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_04: It flew by.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_04: It flew by.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_04: So that in mind, I mean, what are you most looking forward to in 2026?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_03: 26.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_03: Whew.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: I thought the world was ending at the end of 2025, right?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: We get to go beyond.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: No, I'm actually really looking forward to being able to spend more time and dive into the common agenda implementation strategy by strategy, adding the right kind of capacity at multiple partner organizations as well as here with us at the backbone.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: So there's some new tools.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_03: I know we've been like hyping it up and sharing it at all the action team meetings, but it's actually really helpful and a unique place that we get to be as a network.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_03: So I could obviously geek out on this all day.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: So looking forward to that in 2026 because there are so many wins to celebrate.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I'm just jumping right into that too, Ken.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_03: My wins for recently, I will say that I'm grateful that the government shutdown has ended because we have a regional conservation partnership project, RCPP.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: And we've had that for a couple of years.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's a really collaborative example of how we're doing this work.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_03: And so four years into it, um, making sure that we keep moving.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: And it's a win because we can keep doing that now with uh National Resource Conservation Service NRCS being open again.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm impressed.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's me.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: Not the intro.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: How about you, Ken?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, 2026.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_04: My wins, okay.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_04: I have to absolutely say is this podcast.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's we're still going, we are still having a blast with every episode.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: And I hope you folks are having a blast as well.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_04: And that is the thing I'm looking forward to most in 2026.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_04: In season five, we're going to focus on education, education around the environment and sustainability and all kinds of things from a very, very young age to adults and teachers and what happens.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: Lots of different kinds of education.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, there are so many different kinds.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm really looking forward to some of the really cool people that we're going to talk to and really put more of a spotlight on the work that they're doing because it's some really cool stuff.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely looking forward to it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_04: And so, hey, speaking of really cool stuff, our guest today is Matt Koffroth.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_04: He's the assistant district manager for Lancaster County Conservation District.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_04: And there's a lot he's he's going to be talking about, about the history, because this is the 75th anniversary of the Lancaster County Conservation District.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_04: So we're really looking forward to celebrating it with him.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: Woohoo.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_03: Any chance can celebrate.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_04: The studio audience loves a party.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_04: I'll tell you what.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: 75 is a really good reason to celebrate my word.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_04: It really is.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_04: It really is.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_04: And there's a lot of information that you can get at their website, which is LancasterConservation.org.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_04: I'm going to put a link to that in the show notes and also some of the programs that he's going to talk about.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, it's a good conversation.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_03: Here we go.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, we're going to celebrate.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like we'll take our joys and celebrations here and shift to 75.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll try it.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: So our hope is that we get to talk about you as Matt, but also about um the district in 75 years.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: So we'll focus on that.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_04: Let's start off with an icebreaker.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_04: Your question is if you got a do-over for one decision in your life, what would it be?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of decisions I've made.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't say I think I made decisions that probably um I don't say where I regret, but I think they were there for a reason.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Probably the one I would say maybe I would do over was I took some graduate level classes right when I was actually before I started here at the conservation district.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I wish I would have kept going with it.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: I really do.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: I guess I I still can, I know, but it's one of those things that I wanted to advance my career.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: And once I got here, I was like, well, I think I'm good, but maybe I probably should have kept going.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe that's something I would have done over.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I st like I said, there's still opportunity to do that.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I wouldn't call it a true do-over.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: And it is hard to jump back in after you.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_04: It is.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: I know people that are doing it now.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's it it can be hard because you get back into that that school frame as opposed to the work frame of mine.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: You and your daughter can go through it together.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's another reason why we'll separate that out.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_04: So what is your favorite early memory from your childhood?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell I think that's probably pretty easy because that's why I'm the career I am.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I enjoyed we lived uh north of Lidditz and and we lived in a small development and there were creeks and streams, and me and my friends would just ride our bikes, we would go down to the creek, we would play in the creek, we would drink out of the creek, which were probably not the smartest thing to do because it came right from a farm, but we were stupid and naive.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: We were young kids.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: We would take our bikes, we would ride to Speedwell Forge Lake, we would do a lot of fishing.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just being outside and in the winter, too.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, going sledding down huge hills or going jumping things in in sleds.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: So it was those kind of memories that being outside and being one with nature, kind of doing those things.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was never really a hunter, but enjoyed fishing and being outside and doing that.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's kind of led me to my career path that I'm in today.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: That makes perfect sense.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like we talk about this with most guests.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: The whole concept of till the street lights came on, you were out and just that freedom.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh how I got home, my dad would yell, he would whistle.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: He would whistle in the neighborhood, and I knew that whistle was my whistle.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: That was my whistle to go home.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: So four cell phones and everything else, but enjoyable.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_04: And I was gonna that's that answers the question I was gonna ask was like, okay, did you have street lights there?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_04: So No, it was a development.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we kind of sat in the hill actually looking over Rock Liddits, which is now live Rock Liddits.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we didn't have any streetlights.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: We kind of just uh it was always fun in the winter time, too, when we had like the blizzards and those kind of things because you were the last to be plowed out, but that was part of the fun of it, too.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: We built tunnels and everything else.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure it wasn't fun for my parents, but it was fun for me.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_04: So with that kind of experience, did that influence what you wanted to be when you grew up even back then?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell, I think it did.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I was more into marine biology, probably.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I kind of started out with and thought that was something I wanted to do.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I realized I don't know that much about orcas or whales or anything like that.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I kind of changed my major a couple times, like a lot of kids do in college, and then found environmental science at Millersville, and it was like this is kind of what I remember doing.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: This is kind of like the ecology side of things and and the stream side of things, and that's kind of where I kind of focused in on.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know that you were marine biology at first.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, wait, now I remember you talking about California.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: I did go to California University of Pennsylvania, yeah, for my freshman year, which was a learning experience being away.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um about 85% of that campus goes home on the weekends.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I was left there by myself.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: There's a traffic light and a subway restaurant.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's all that's there on the Monongahila River.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: So other than that, there's not too much.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it was it was a learning process.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I was in the same boat.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: I thought I wanted to do marine biology.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_03: I was completely set on the dolphins and the training.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I went to camp at SeaWorld.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, oh, the vets have all the power.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to be a vet.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think I learned because I think in seventh or eighth grade, one of the teachers took us to Cape Cod and we did the whale trip.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, yep.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how I got hooked into it.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Still had the oceanography and and marine biology books, but yeah, wasn't for me.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: Same thing.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: I'm with you.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like ecosystem, bigger picture thinking and like environmental connections.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_04: From there, and I don't know what was in between, actually, uh, but you've been at the Lancaster County Conservation District for almost 25 years.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I was at Millersville and and trying to find something like we all do out of college.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I found at the time it was Lancaster Labs.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: I guess it's now EuroFins.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and thought about chemistry for a little bit and was like, maybe for a half second or something.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't very long.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but it was a good start-out job right out of college.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: But it was like, do I really want to be working second shift in a basement?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Which was a great job.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I like Lancaster Labs, I made a lot of friends there, but it was just like I I need something different.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is not what I went to school for.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I started uh going back to school and started volunteering in my my community with Littus Run Water Show Alliance.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my father said, Hey, this group's starting up, why don't you check them out?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I went to a meeting.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Dan was there, Logan was there, Mark Gutshaw was there.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know any of those folks, but I was you probably thought, oh, this college kid, what's he doing here?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: But it was it was something that I had a passion for.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I tell people now.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, if you have a passion, find a way to get interested in that.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of how I did.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it's one of those things where it's not what you know sometimes, it's who you know.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I uh I knew Mark Metzler.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he was the watershed specialist here at the conservation district.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Hey, we have a I'm leaving.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to Ratu.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm there's an opening here.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you want to apply for it.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: I had no idea what the conservation district did.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: I had no idea about anything.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I said, we'll see.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I applied and got the position as watershed specialist.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_04: So what was the biggest change in the conservation district in those 25 years since then?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think the biggest change besides just location and and size of the district is the technology.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we were doing everything on I'm showing my age, 2001.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: We were doing a lot of things on paper and and and and mimeographs.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, those kind of things, carbon paper, which we don't even use anymore.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um the old big lunky computers.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: There was no laptops.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: It was you were taking pictures.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then you were taking them over to Park City and going to a place to get undeveloped.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you weren't getting prints made, you were getting slides made.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: So you have thousands of thousands of slides.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you were doing those kind of things.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that you think that's only 25 years ago.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: We've changed to you have that handheld device and you're taking pictures on it.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so yeah, I think the technology is the biggest change I'd see in regards to how we we do our jobs and how we we do conservation in general.
• 10:43
  unknown: Yeah.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: You said the location too.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: Where was the district then?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Ross Powell, so we were still here in the farm and home center, but we were downstairs in what was called room three.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: It was actually three different rooms down there.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was beautiful.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was uh carpeted walls.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh very nice.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not kidding.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: They were carpeted.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think they were changed since the 60s.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: This was still 2001.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: This was 2001.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so it was uh administration was in one room, uh, ENS and Watershed were in a different room, and then uh Ag was in a separate room.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: NRCS was kind of commingled with us.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: But you had to walk through this maze of rooms to get from my office to the administrator's office.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um wow.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it was different, but um it it was a nice camaraderie of a group there, and and a lot of those people we still have contacts and partners with today.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_03: So wow.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: And how many people were part of the team?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: At that point, I think there was probably I want to say 15 to 17 folks.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: There was enough.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: There was enough at that point because there was like three or four uh ENS, myself, um, a couple admin, a couple compliance or biosols at the time as well.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: So then AG as well.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, there was probably about I'd say maybe fifteen.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Powell And that was in 2001 when the district started 75 years ago.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_03: Tell us about what the team was like at that point.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Powell So 75 years ago, there was no staff.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I was in 1950, the board did all that kind of outreach.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: The board did all of it.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_03: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: So the board was going out uh talking, that was the Amos Funks, that was the Aaron Stauffers.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: They were going out uh talking to their neighbors, saying, hey, you should think about contour strips, or you should think about cover crop, or you should think about uh this kind of tillage method, or whatever it might be.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was just the board members kind of forming their own little pack and talking to folks about conservation.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't until uh the sixties that we actually got our first part-time employee, which was Nancy Burkhart.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and that was just part-time doing secretarial work for the board at that point.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: So it really wasn't a lot of uh work that they were doing.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was just uh kind of they were helping the board move things along.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Ross Powell So give us a little bit of a history lesson, I suppose.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: So those group of people were trying to spread the word of different types of ag practices, but why did that become a conservation district?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: So the conservation district actually started, if you look in the records here in Lancaster, like in 1938.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: There was a small group of farmers that kind of formed a pack in the southern part of Lancaster County, actually.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was more of the Aaron Dalphers and Amos Funks that kind of we're losing a lot of topsoil here.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: We have the best non-irrigated topsoil east of the Mississippi.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the dust bowl was going on, they realized that, but they wanted some way to preserve and protect that.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: So they just kind of came together, kind of formed a small little group.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then in the 50s, the legislation came out that I could actually form a county conservation district.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: So that's a big gap.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: So there's 12 years in there.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that group was doing work down the southern end, just kind of bringing people together.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: They had no dollars, they had nothing.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then in the 50s, that's when the counties said, look, you can form a county conservation district to protect those natural resources, and that's when Lancaster County kind of stepped up.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that smaller Southern End group kind of then transformed into the county conservation district.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the budget was very small.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't have a lot of budget.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: It was like$500.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we're giving you, and you're you're good to go.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because that was just mostly for education to get the word out.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: They had a plowing contest.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: They had today we'd probably frown upon, it was plowing and those kind of things.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: But they were doing things uh innovatively, trying to get the word out there.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: There was uh an award they would go after every year, a Goodyear Tired Award for conservation.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Goodyear tired, like the blimp, right?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: No, it was actually they sponsored a conservation award and the district of Lancaster won several years in a row.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: It was kind of a prestigious award.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: They did the first aerial flyover, they would have aerial flyover tours they wanted to be able to see.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: No, not not Goodyear, but the district itself.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: One of the board directors uh had a pilot's license, so they would go up and take pictures almost before satellite images came out.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: So once again, Lancaster kind of being that premier kind of district that was kind of ahead of its time, and I think they still are.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: I know you kind of I can feel it.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: Like you want to take this in so many ways.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: I do, I do.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_04: And the the cool thing is we see, we still see a lot, because that started like the trend of that aerial photography over the the projects that are being done.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_04: And when awards are given out for projects, we have we have them hanging pictures of those hanging all over the building here.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_04: And that's it's really neat to go back and and see you know what all the work that has been done.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_04: It's a lot of work.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: And they started giving those awards away right around those 50s when they started doing Outstanding Cooperator or Soil Science, Soil Stewardship Awards.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: That was the idea is really to highlight those that are doing outstanding conservation work, especially mostly in the ag sector is really where they were focused initially.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: But there was a lot of education as well.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_04: And there's a lot of creativity, I mean, right from the jump to make things work.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_04: And there's still a lot of creativity today.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_04: And the education segments of that, um, we'll get to that in a minute.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_04: Moving that all up to current times, the Langster County Conservation District is different from most other conservation districts.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_04: In what ways is it different and why?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if we're different.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think the the way uh we kind of operate is a little bit different just because we yes, we are a county government agency where we're kind of pseudo-county government.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're independent is what we're called, and there's some districts that are like that, but allows us a little bit more freedom to have a little bit more freedom to do some of the things that are our resource concerns here in the county.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we have a strong ag program, because there's about 5,000 farms in Lancaster.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: But uh we also have an erosion sedimentation.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's their their job is to look at those construction sites.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: But it allows us to kind of branch out and have a little bit more of the education outreach.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Most districts have an educator, but they strictly deal with the environment.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: We also have one that deals with the conservation school that we have for 14 to 16 year olds, but also an ombudsman, which is kind of unique to Lancaster, where they're dealing with conflict between agriculture and municipalities.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: There's only two of those in the state that's housed here in Lancaster because of our strong ag background.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: The watershed program, yeah, that came along, but that kind of initiated here in Lancaster County, believe it or that.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: That was Mark Metzler.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: The whole watershed specialist program.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: It actually started here in Lancaster County.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we had a watershed specialist here in Lancaster before the state did.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: They actually uh kind of templated or modeled the program after what we had here.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was Mark working with uh farmers and and teachers in the Donegal Creek area.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: They wanted a fly fishing area in their backyard, so they were doing kind of watershed work.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: And the district's Mark went to the district and said, Hey, can we do this watershed work?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: He was actually an erosion and sedimentation technician reviewing permits.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, How does this fit our mission?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Look, it it's watershed.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: It helps the the we're planting trees, we're doing stream improvements, and we actually formed that in the eight mid to late nineties, and then the watershed specialist position Julie didn't start until late 90s, early 2000s.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, they would have a watershed specialist, they called it a watershed leadership academy.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's very similar to yours, but it was not a leadership academy, it's just a watershed academy.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we actually they took the new watershed specialists, all 65 of them from all the different county conservation districts, and we actually came to Lancaster here and toured locations here in Lancaster of what our watershed specialist was doing.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: They went to Hammer Creek, they went to Liddits Run, they went to the Donegal.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: So they were seeing what a watershed specialist could do and then taking that back to their county and doing some of that.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: When was that?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: That was uh I think I actually have pictures and there's some of that back in the late 90s, early 2000s.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man, I want to get that agenda and like redo it.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's a whole binder.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: I could give you a whole binder of a big team.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_03: Ooh, that'd be fun.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Watership it was called Watership Academy, and it was run by a she was a DEP employee, and then she moved on to become a teacher.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Department of Environmental Protection.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, thank you.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: That one is we use that one all the time.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: But yes, we need to spell it out.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, I want to re I want to replicate that.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_03: That's one of my things for 2026 now.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: That can be an alumni peach.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: The sad part is some of those people and watershed specialists throughout the state are still around.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: I bet.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they might not be as watershed specialists.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them had transitioned uh into district managers, believe it or not.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: District managers start as watershed specialists just because uh the watershed program touches so many other programs within the conservation district.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean that's how kind of our Lancaster district is unique and that we have a lot more departments.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: We also have a data and analysis program, which is very unique.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: There no other county conservation district has that, dealing with the amount of data that we're gathering and the um grants that we're encumbering or the verification of best management practices that are out in the field.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of unique to Lancaster, which has allowed us to kind of do things that other districts can't.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_04: So uh kind of piggybacking on that, in your time here, what has, in your opinion, been the biggest win for the conservation district?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: For me, it's the amount of other partners and programs that are now jumping into this.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, when Mark was just doing this and myself starting out, there was just one or two individuals or small groups doing this.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now you have so many more partners from the Clean Water Partners to the Alliance of Chesapeake Bay, Stroud Water, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, LFT, Lancaster Farmland Trust.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Very good.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: So all these organizations, not that they weren't there before, but they're now focused on the water quality issues here in Lancaster County, where I it felt like more of a heavy lift in the past.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: And now there's so many more organizations doing this.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: That can sometimes feel threatening, but at the same time also invigorating, too, because there's more opportunities and more opportunities to grow with that as well.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: Aaron Powell Sure.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: More people coming to the table, but it's got to be coordinated, and you guys have 75 years of experience doing that.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, learning from It's sharing the agenda.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you mentioned that 2025 marks the Thanksgiving County Conservation District's 75th anniversary.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_04: As you mentioned, it started in 1950s.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_04: Aaron Powell What do you see the next 75 years looking like?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's an open-ended question there.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: It is a very open-ended question.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: I I see I think technology is going to be once again something moving forward, whether it be uh the aerial imagery or for drones or can I say AI?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: I know that's an acronym, but artificial intelligence.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: I see a lot more of that going on and how that kind of incorporates into our daily lives, whether it be modeling or water quality.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot more data.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's where we're seeing a lot of this in regards to monitoring information.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: I also see maybe new opportunities as well.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think climate change is coming in there, uh, whether you want to incorporate that into us.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of things that we do and a lot of things that our partners do kind of uh work with that in some regards to dissipate that in what we're doing, whether it be through conservation efforts or water quality efforts.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's I think there's endless possibilities, but I think technology is going to lead a lot of that along with the people and the the the Partners that we have.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_04: Now you had mentioned our extensive focus on agriculture and stormwater.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, there's a c there's a couple things you mentioned there.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_04: Do you think that focus is going to stay the same?
• 22:14
  unknown: Yeah.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I mean we don't deal with stormwater per se, but I think I think we deal with stormwater in regards to how to control some of that.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: I would say, yeah, I think that's going to stay because it's the it's written in the law.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: People have a right to clean water, uh, forest, everything like that.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: So they they want to make sure that we have that.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's one of only two, I think, in the entire United States that has a a kind of a that written in that people have the right to those kind of things.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the as long as the resource concerns are there, I think that might change a little bit.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we're seeing more development.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that might be more toward a focus of maybe stormwater protection, but we also have a very strong preserv preservation program of agriculture.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that also plays a factor in ag is still going to be there, but the stormwater aspect is gonna be how do we commingle these together and still have healthy watersheds, healthy uh environments and and conserve that and preserve it moving forward.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: The district plays this unique role that's kind of between or sometimes compliance driven, sometimes legal requirements, sometimes volunteer driven.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: So how does that play out over 75 years?
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: And get started with volunteers, and now there's these components added on to the responsibilities of a district.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: Looking ahead, what is the main role and main way that that you think a district can be successful?
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I kind of go back to one of our previous administrators, Don McNutt, and he kind of pointed, I thought very well, we we're the district is meant to be a common sense buffer between the the state and some of the federal requirements that are passed down to us and what maybe property owners, landowners, producers, farmers have to incorporate.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: We're like, how can we assist you in getting that done?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, there are the compliance issues that we sometimes have to deal with.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Our board is doesn't want to go take the farmer or the pr or somebody to enforcement, but there there's sometimes you need to use the stick as opposed to the carrot.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think our board has slowly saw that as a tool to help them move things along.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I think we can be that common sense and say, look, we can help you along, and there's opportunities that we can help you, whether it be through funding, through education, through uh other means that are out there, or we're gonna have to pass you on to the next step in regards to that compliance aspect.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the intent of the district has always been and still is education.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that a lot of that's what we continue to do.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: But that compliance aspect is something which is kind of underwritten into some of those things that we have to do.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think our board and the county and residents are understanding that a little bit more as we go through this, because they 75 years, they've seen that progression over time.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and having to navigate that, both understanding what the state needs, what the local needs are, you guys are yeah, that buffer in between.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: So correct.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's where all the partners come in, too, kind of sharing where we're going, why we're doing these things, too.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's not we're trying to come down on you, we're trying to make this all better.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I will throw out and I'll probably be chastised by it.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: But it when I first started, I went to one of those meetings and I was wet behind the ears, and I said, I don't give a damn about the Chesapeake Bay.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I was in the front page of the paper, and I'll never forget that.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: And they hung it up in the district office because I did uh I care about local streams and water quality.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's where we're all coming from in if we finish our local streams and creeks and our own backyards, the bay will fix itself.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's really the intent of what that statement meant.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that's what a lot of us try to do is just fix up our own backyard areas, our backyard environments to make the larger picture better.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm gonna take that and keep going then.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_03: How has that perspective changed?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, Lancaster is this different place in the Bay world at this point.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_03: And 75, 50, 25 years later, I mean, that that changes all the time.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: Bay agreement in the 80s had a very different tone than it does now.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: So how does the district and Lancaster's leadership, like you said, how does that play into then the Bay world and the Bay-driven reductions, that kind of stuff?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think it's it it was meant to be this way.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think the way we've looked at in the past, we were always that bullseye.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: This is Lancaster, this is where all the pollution is coming from, these are the bad actors.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: But I think through numerous reasons from partners like clean water partners, other partners coming on and the progress that we've all made in regards to, yes, we haven't gotten streams delisted yet.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's coming, it's coming.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's getting we're improving, but we haven't but we're we're showing that with the efforts that are putting on the ground.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: I I see state agencies and federal agencies now looking at us as a leader.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we have challenges, but looking at us more of leadership as opposed to they're the problem child.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's always been Pennsylvania and Lancaster has been the problem child, but now maybe Pennsylvania and Lancaster are maybe what we should be emulating, which I think is I don't want to say it's a 180, because I think it it I think it changes kind of the paradigm and and shows that we we do care about that.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Even though we're not taking boat trips down to the bay every week.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're we care about our environment, we care about the conservation of our resources, we care about our heritage and where we come from and what the county is all about.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: So doing that, I think that's the perspective I've seen.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that goes back to Ken's question is how's that changed?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's kind of how I've seen some things change as well.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_04: Part of that change is educating the public, especially educating kids, because they're like the next they're the future of our environment.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_04: And the conservation district has uh some programs like the Envirathon, and there's teacher education training there.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_04: Uh how has when did that develop?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_04: And where do you see that maybe going?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: So that was mostly started through the education coordinator position.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's Sally Gregory, but before her it was Jess Erman, and before that it was Shoddy Sprinkle.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: So those were individuals, once again, in regards to educating folks.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: So the conservation school and the environment have have always been kind of staples of the conservation district.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: But Sally's kind of brought in some of the teacher training, some of those opportunities, whether it be outdoor learning network, whether it be working with the IU-13, uh, intermediate unit 13.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh four I get thuzz for that one.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: But kind of working with those kind of students, once again, you talked about teaching that next uh group of students so that they can take it back to their kids.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: But it's also teaching the teachers as well, because it's curriculum-based.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: So if there's something they can be sharing.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: So but then partnering with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation on those or the Stroudwater Research Center in regards to those trainings definitely helps.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's been more of recently doing the whole teacher training activities and those kind of things.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's where that progression has has evolved.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_04: And that plays into our next season then.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_04: Because our next season is all about education and various levels.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_04: So it's something cool for you to to uh stick around and stay tuned for.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_04: Finally, uh Matt, in in Lancaster, we're looking at the collective goal of clean and clear by 2040.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_04: Now, before that date arrives, we're using uh end of 2025 as kind of a milestone for our local and and bay-driven goals.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_04: We're not stopping at that point.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's not a stop 2025 is not a stopping point, it's just a marker along the way.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_04: What brings you excitement and eagerness as we look beyond 2025?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think I go back to something we talked about earlier.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's just the amount of partners and the amount of people that are now involved in in lifting up Lancaster, is how I see it.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's doing that good.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, 2025 is a number.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: We were supposed to hit certain numbers.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever it might have been.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um how I explained to folks is look, it took hundreds of thousands of years to degrade the bay and our watersheds.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's not going to happen overnight.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: It might not happen in our generation, it might not happen our kids' generation.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I think showing progressive and progression in improving those waters is what we're trying to do, or progression or education, improving the farming practices, the conservation practices we're doing, the stormwater controls we're doing, the green infrastructure approaches.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I think every year we kind of build upon that.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: We get challenged with that because there's population growth, there's climate changes.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: So there's new threats coming to us all the time, but I think it's how you deal with those and how you kind of progress in that process.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: Will we ever get back to the Bay when John Smith and floated up?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think we will, but I think we can get to a location where we are improving.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've seen that with some of the Bay numbers that have come out, that the Upper Bay is improving or those kind of things because of things that are going on.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't want to say we're not going to clean it up, but I think there's ways we can improve our local watersheds, and that's what happens in our backyards, and that's what we can all kind of take stock in and do something about.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_03: And we need more parties.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_03: We do because you guys got a great party, a gala for 75th anniversary of the district.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_03: So we need more.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll let me give me a little time and we'll get back to it.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_04: But yes.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_04: Kudos to all the people that put that together.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_04: It was beautiful.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was a lot, a lot of work, and it really paid off.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_04: So this brings us to my favorite part of the show, and that is trivia time.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_04: Woohoo! Since it is the 75th anniversary of the conservation district, I have put together a round of 75th trivia.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not very good at trivia, but we'll see how it goes.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: The weekly lunchroom trivia.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: I know, but I'm not very good at that.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: I just shout out answers, I'll tell you the honest.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: First thing that pops into my mind.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_04: So your first question is a first anniversary is celebrated with paper, a fifth anniversary with wood, fiftyth with gold.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_04: What is the 75th celebrated with that?
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: I do know because we wanted to have a gala and we wanted to have something that corresponded with the gala in 75 years.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: So 75 is signalized by diamonds.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: It is indeed.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_03: You weren't handing them out though.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: There was talk about going to a jewelry and maybe graffling one off.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: I said I'm maybe maybe not.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_04: So uh responsible.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, we've got to be around another 75 years, Alison, so that's probably not.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_03: So the budget's gone up, but exactly.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_04: What Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steeler wore the jersey number 75?
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Hall of Famer.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um I know it wasn't Terry Bradshaw.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_04: You might remember him from a commercial.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was Mean Joe Green, wasn't it?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: It was in fact Mean Joe Green.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_04: I'm right there with you.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_04: Uh according to onthisday.com, what is the most commonly known event from 1975?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, I was three years old, so I don't think I remember this.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: But um an event.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think it'd be something political, I'm guessing.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_04: Well, kind of.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it definitely could have gotten if the headline of the year was.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Was it Watergate?
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: No, maybe not.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_04: It was the end of the Vietnam War.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, end of the Vietnam War.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_04: I honestly I'm I'm a trivia nut.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not sure I could have pulled that one out.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_04: So according to Orchard Brokerage, what was the median cost to buy a house 75 years ago?
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's that'd been 1950, and I'll give you like within a thousand.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you have a great graphic of what those cat like things of 75 years ago were uh on your website.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_03: Fascinating.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it was on there or uh so how many what what what's my range I have?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: You said a thousand.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'll give you a thousand dollars, yeah.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh less than ten.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: You think it was less than ten.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um okay.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say probably maybe around nine.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was close to seven thousand actually.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_04: Six thousand nine hundred and ninety-two dollars.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_04: To buy a house.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_04: I know, right?
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_04: There are currently four states with a maximum speed limit of seventy-five on rural interstates.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um is Pennsylvania one of them?
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I'd go in.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, for 75, yes.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: Or 70, probably.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Then I would say no, then.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_04: You are correct.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the maximum speed limit in Pennsylvania is 70.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, that's exactly right.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_04: Which of these celebrities does not turn 75 in 2025?
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_04: Stevie Wonder, Bill Gates, Bill Murray, or Morgan Fairchild?
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: I thought Bill Murray was older than that.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna say Bill Murray.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_04: Oh it's it's Bill Gates.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_04: He turned 72.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, he's the the young of the bunch.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_03: You might be right.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_03: Bill Murray's probably older than 75.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: He looks older.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, this one's a tough one.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, which film won the Oscar for the best motion picture 75 years ago?
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's no multiple choice with these.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Come on now.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um I have no idea what that is.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_04: That's I don't think I would have either.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_04: It's all the King's Men.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_04: Uh there you go.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: 75 years ago.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_04: Finally, what was the average cost of a gallon of gas 75 years ago in 1950?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, was it like three cents?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_04: It was 27 cents.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_04: 27, really.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was a lot cheaper than.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_04: There you go.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_04: Inflation.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_04: That was it.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's our trivia.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_04: And that's our show.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Matt, so much for coming in and congratulations to the Lancaster County Conservation District for celebrating 75 years, and here's two 75 more.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for having me.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate it.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_04: And we will be back in just a couple of weeks.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_04: Until then, take care.
• 36:08
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• 36:22
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• 36:26
  SPEAKER_04: If you have comments or suggestions for show topics or are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact us at info at Lancaster Cleanwater Partners.com.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you for listening.