Who is Barbara Bleiweis, Mecklenburg soil and water supervisor candidate?
Age as of Nov. 8, 2022: 65
Campaign website: n/a
Occupation: Supervisor, Mecklenburg Soil and Water Conservation District
Education: Bachelors degree, University of Maryland, College Park
Have you run for elected office before? (Please list previous offices sought): 2018, Mecklenburg Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor
What sort of life experience do you have that’s applicable to this position?
My life has been about change as a constant and a blessing. As an Army brat we moved every 2 years. That experience help me embrace change with courage and confidence. When elected in 2018, I made a career change from private sector to public service. Since then, I’ve introduced more change by increasing staff and funding, elevating our visibility to county, state and national levels and renewed our focus on farmland preservation to benefit the county environmental and food system goals.
How would you work to protect Mecklenburg County’s soil and water for future generations?
I would educate and empower communities and environmental groups with knowledge and resources to conserve soil and water in their own back yards. I would make conservation personal because when a family member can learn one way to conserve soil or water through a simple practice that they can do at home, the likelihood of that practice being replicated for future generation is that much greater.
What’s the biggest threat to clean water and the environment in Mecklenburg County?
The biggest threat to clean water and the environment is the unabated increase in impervious surfaces and the contemporaneous loss of farmland and trees. These events go hand in hand with urban expansion. Protecting clean water is the net result of policies to protect the ecosystem of streams, ground water, trees and more. Clean water protection is natural resource protection. You cannot have one without the other.
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