Good Soil Science Is Important
to Farm Bill Implementation

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief,
NRCS,
by phone to the
National Soil Scientists Meeting
St. Joseph, MO, October 28, 2002

Good afternoon. I’m sorry I can’t be with you today in St. Joseph, but I do want to lend my support to your meeting and to have a chance to talk with you about the future of soil science at NRCS.

Even though I am fairly new to NRCS, I do have experience with the Soil Survey on my farm in South Dakota.

Although we now work with other resources, including water, air, wildlife, and community resources, soil science will always be important to our success as an Agency. It is important for us to have a full complement of soil scientists working to maintain and improve the science behind our conservation work. We will be getting more conservation done on the land – lots more. So, it is more important than ever that we have good data available to us and to our customers.

I want to thank you for everything you have done to digitize and update our soils data and get the Electronic Field Office Technical Guide up and running. You had a very short timeframe for getting that work done, and I appreciate your efforts. As a result of your hard work, your fellow employees and our partners have the latest soil information at their fingertips. Not only is electronic accessibility becoming more and more of an expectation of our partners and customers, it is also a major part of the administration’s e-government initiative, and a major goal of our Agency.

Ready access to the latest soils information will be important to the successful implementation of the farm bill. Because of workload generated by the new farm bill, we will be using a lot of outside help – technical service providers and others – to help us get the job done. These people will benefit from the work you have done to make soils information available electronically.

I know having soils information on the Web is just one of the many new technologies you have implemented or are working to implement. The data you have provided is valuable in many other applications, including WINPest and RUSLE2.

The Soil Survey program has long been on the cutting edge of new technologies. The National Soil Survey Center and Laboratory lead that effort. And the field has been very flexible in testing and adapting these new technologies – often in a short timeframe. Many states – among them Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, and Vermont – have used internal talent to explore new technologies on their own or through the help of partnerships, and I thank you for that effort.

The contributions of NRCS soil scientists reach way beyond our Agency. FSA will be using your data for the next CRP signup. FSA needs that data for the soils part of the Environmental Benefits Index, a major criterion for ranking in CRP. I know it will take a lot of work in the States to prepare specific files for export to FSA, and that you will be talking about this at your meeting.

The work never ends. We have a continuing need to maintain and improve our data to meet new conservation concerns. Because soils data are so important to our business, we must continue working to maintain and update the soil survey. It is especially important that we complete the basic soil survey. Our soil data simply must be kept up to date.

Historically, soil scientist positions have been very important in NRCS, and that will continue to be the case. Today’s soil scientists need to be both field savvy and database savvy to assist soil conservationists with farm bill implementation and customer service toolkit implementation.

I know many of you are interested in the future of the soil science profession at NRCS. Let me assure you, that future is bright. Soil scientist positions are critical to the success of the Agency, particularly with the increased emphasis on conservation in the new farm bill.

All of the retirements coming up create a challenge for the Agency. We must attract bright new soil scientists. We must train our present staff and prepare them to move up in the organization. We must have a steady supply of new soil scientists into the soil survey program, so that we can maintain our ability to provide the best soil survey information in the world.

We already have started filling in the gaps in our field office structure – gaps caused by retirements and normal workforce turnover. The USDA Career Intern Program also is helping us maintain a strong cadre of soil scientists. This program allows us to hire entry-level professional and technical employees without advertisement. NRCS is the only USDA agency making widespread use of this authority. Hiring these career interns will help us in the long run because we can convert them to permanent status after two years. We already have hired about 85 employees under this authority.

We need all the soil scientists we have now, and more, to support our field conservation operations; to maintain and upgrade soil survey databases, digital products, and soil interpretations; to help people understand and use soil survey data appropriately; to develop and maintain field office technical guides; to carry out educational activities; and to perform survey maintenance and update work.

At the same time, farm bill implementation will create a lot of work for soil conservationists, for other resource professionals, and for almost any NRCS profession you can think of.

To get our farm bill work done, we will have to work through our partners and technical service providers. We have plenty to do within the Agency, and we need all the outside help we can get. If we do not make full use of technical service providers, too much of your work time will get siphoned off for technical soil services work when you should be focusing on soil science work, such as maintaining our soil survey program capacity. We cannot and will not allow that to happen. Your work as soil scientists is simply too important to our success as an Agency.

Your agenda this week is ambitious. It is clearly aimed at helping you meet the challenges of the future. The new farm bill marks the beginning of a new golden age of conservation in America, and soil scientists will play an important role in making that new golden age a reality.

Good luck in your efforts. Now, I would be happy to answer any questions.