My name is Josh Thompson. I was born
and raised among the farms and oak woods of western Kent County,
growing up with rod and shotgun
in hand, prowling the backwoods and swamps of the region. Agriculture
was an integral part of my life, as my family has been farming
small grain and breeding and training racehorses for four generations.
We were regulars at the Grange and I later joined the Young
Farmers and Ranchers division of the Farm
Bureau. Eventually,
I ventured
north of the canal to attend the University
of Delaware and earned
a B.S. in Animal Science. Soon after graduation I took a
job at a large horse farm in Maryland as an assistant breeding
manager,
but then moved back to the farm at home and worked until last fall.
Growing restless, I headed west and landed in Texas, where
I guided goose hunts at one of the premier waterfowl lodges in North
America.
Upon returning to Delaware this spring, I interviewed for
the Little Assawoman Bay Watershed Coordinator position at the Center
for
the Inland Bays, and was fortunate to be offered the position.
This project is a joint effort of the Nutrient
Management Commission, poultry integrators, Sussex
County Conservation
District, DNREC,
and the Center for the
Inland Bays. The main objective of the position is to create a “model
watershed” around
the little Assawoman Bay, which is surrounded by heavy development in the east
and north, and agriculture in the west, but has no point source pollution.
As the watershed coordinator, I will work with the farmers and poultry
growers in
the watershed to collect current nutrient management data and identify potential
opportunities for BMPs. Also, I am charged with the duty of putting together
baseline data and showing historical trends of ecological indicators in the
Little Assawoman Bay itself.
This project is important to many people
and I look forward to working with all of the players involved
to accomplish our common goal of improving the
Little
Assawoman Bay. It is unique in that it offers the opportunity
for growers, integrators, and the state to work together and show the positive
strides
that the agricultural community has taken towards improving the
environment.
