Edited Transcript of NRCS Emeritus Norman Berg calling into C-SPAN's Washington Journal with question for Secretary Ann M. Veneman, Secretary Gale Norton
and Administrator Christine Todd Whitman on "Washington Journal," C-SPAN

Wednesday, March 5, 2003

INTERVIEWER: Edgewater, Maryland, good morning. You're on C-SPAN's Washington Journal.

CALLER: Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I admire C-SPAN's Washington Journal, listen many times. I'm a senior citizen. I'll be 85 next week.

INTERVIEWER: Congratulations.

CALLER: Thank you. World War II vet. I served 40 years in USDA, left 20 years ago, been working with a nonprofit organization. I ended up, Secretary of Agriculture Veneman, as chief of what used to be the SCS, now the NRCS. I'm dedicated to the fact that we have ten grandchildren and one great-grand boy, so the future is very important in terms of the environment to those young people. I'm also very grateful that we have people like yourselves working together as you are in the public service. And I would like to simply make the point that it is important--and it's a question. How much can we do to reinforce the relationship of the Federal Government and all of the environmental activities, which is very complex, with the non-Federal Governments--state, local--and the private sector?

INTERVIEWER: Secretary Veneman?

SECRETARY VENEMAN: "Well, thank you very much for your question, and thank you for your service to our country and to the Department of Agriculture as well."

I think there's a tremendous amount that we can do working together, as we are, in trying to do what's right for the environment.

A couple of things that I think we should recognize, and that is, we got historic levels of funding in the last farm bill that was passed last year by the Congress for environmental work and conservation funding for our farmers and ranchers to be better stewards of the land, because they depend upon the water, the land, and the air to produce what they do, and that's--the agency that you were involved in has been so active in that.

But we are promoting at every level now more and more partnerships at the local level, with environmental and conservation organizations to work together particularly at the local level, to do the right thing for the environment. And I think it's very important--the NRCS, the SCS that you used to be a part of, has been a very, very important partner at the local level in bringing these interests together.

INTERVIEWER: Secretary Norton?

SECRETARY NORTON: We've strongly emphasized the approach of building partnerships for conservation with private outside groups and with local communities. Our conservation grant programs have gone up from $50 million to $400 million, and it really lets us leverage the Federal funds. It not only brings in other government money, but it really involves people in taking care of the environments and public lands. It helps us bring in the Boy Scout troops to work on trails and the local environmental groups and chambers of commerce to work with us on restoring wetlands. And so there are tremendous benefits both in terms of improving the environment but also in terms of getting people to feel that ownership that will cause them to take care of these lands for the long term.

INTERVIEWER: Governor Whitman, another area of overlapping jurisdiction?

ADMINISTRATOR WHITMAN: Absolutely. You know, Steve, the next generation of environmental progress is not going to be achieved without partnerships, without bringing in the public and the private sector. And let me just quickly outline one simple thing in a new initiative that we're undertaking, which is watershed management. I think water's going to be the major environmental challenge of the 21st century, quantity and quality.

INTERVIEWER: What is watershed management?

ADMINISTRATOR WHITMAN : Watershed-based management is going after what we call non-point source pollution, which is pollution that can take place miles away from where it ends up in a stream or in a river. And you need to manage--watershed is a drainage. I mean, that's really what it is. And you need to get back beyond just the borders of that particular stream.

And just one statistic that always, every time I think about it, it is staggering, from personal actions that we undertake, which is why each of us have a responsibility here. From--if you change the oil in your car and you don't clean up after that, if you over fertilize a lawn, that's part of non-point pollution. And every eight months as much oil is deposited along the coast of this country as was released during the Exxon Valdez from non-point source pollution, from what we do every day.

And if that doesn't make you sit up and say, hey, wait a minute, we have a role to play here, and even though I may think I live miles from the nearest stream, what difference does it make if I don't clean up after myself or if I don't read the label on the fertilizer and I over fertilize, it does make a difference. It's all cumulative, and we need to address that as a nation.