The Down East Seniors Club held its June 28 meeting at the Blind Center of North Carolina in Washington. President Stewart Rumley led the meeting. Charles Smith led the singing of “God Bless America” and gave the invocation. Dick Paul provided humor.

Jack Pyburn introduced John Prescott, manager of land management with PotashCorp-Aurora as the speaker. Prescott has held this position since 2010. He manages land acquisition, land leases to farmers and hunting clubs, and timber harvests from woodland areas. PCS now owns approximately 75,000 acres in Beaufort, Hyde and Pamlico counties. The mine and plant site cover 15,000 acres; 35,000 acres are in timberland; 5,000 acres are leased to farmers for cropland; and 12,000 acres are leased to hunting clubs. For environmental mitigation, two or three acres must be put back into its natural state (usually as wetlands) for each acre mined. The state has an environmental easement on this land although PCS retains ownership. The mitigation land must be in the Pamlico River watershed but does not have to be in the mine or plant site area. Current permits will allow mining operations to continue until sometime between 2035 and 2040.

Sam Price won the 50/50 drawing.