Working Together to Get Conservation Done

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service,
at the Mississippi Association of Conservation Districts Annual Meeting
Jackson, MS
January 15, 2003

Thank you, Marc (Curtis). Good Afternoon, everyone, and thank you for inviting me to attend the 58th MACD meeting. It is a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about the future of conservation on working lands in Mississippi.

The conservation districts in Mississippi are a vital part of the locally led approach to conservation that is so important to success. You have developed strong working relationships with a wide range of agricultural interests in the public and private sectors alike – Relationships involving the State Technical Committee, local work groups, and the locally led conservation planning process. These relationships allow farmers to reach their conservation goals the right way – through local decision making.

I know you want to get to the awards part of the program as quickly as possible, so I will try to be brief. I want to talk a bit about where we are in implementing the new farm bill and where we hope to go in the future, with your help.

There is a lot in the new farm bill to be excited about. It represents the single most significant commitment of resources toward conservation on private lands in the nation’s history – a $17.1 billion increase in conservation over ten years. The farm bill also changes the emphasis of conservation programs from idling environmentally sensitive land to promoting conservation on working lands. It is directed at achieving both desirable environmental results and economic strength. Both in its size and its emphasis, the farm bill announces our entry into what I call “the next golden age of conservation.”

Farm Bill Implementation
Three activities dominated our efforts last year in implementing the farm bill: getting the word out, getting the 2002 money out, and writing the rules for farm bill programs.

Getting the money out
Before the fiscal year ended, we released nearly $750 million for EQIP, WRP, WHIP, FPP, and Ground and Surface Water Conservation.

Writing the rules
We have also been working hard to write the rules needed to implement the conservation provisions of the farm bill. The list of rules is getting long:

• Final rules for the Wetlands Reserve Program
and Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program

• The interim final rule for Technical Service Provider certification.

• Proposed rules for Agricultural Management Assistance and the Farmland Protection Program (which will now be called the Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program).

• This month we will publish the proposed rule for EQIP

• USDA is working hard on the rule for the CSP program, and we hope to have the rule ready for release in the near future. We are determined to create a program that works, so it may take some time to iron out the details.

• Finally, USDA will soon issue the delegation of authority for the Grassland Reserve Program. Responsibility for the program will be shared by NRCS, FSA, and the Forest Service. NRCS has the responsibility for writing the rule for GRP.

We are making the rules as simple as possible, making the rulemaking process fully collaborative, and keeping as much decision making as possible at the local level, so that local people have as much control of the programs as possible. Deputy Secretary Moseley refers to this approach as keeping things “lean and local.” In the case of EQIP, I anticipate the rule will be 1/3 less in volume, due to our lean and local effort.

But the most important work does not happen in Washington: Local participation and local leadership is what conservation is all about. Because the conservation programs developed in Washington have only one purpose: To help local people reach their own conservation goals.

Getting the word out
NRCS and its partners across the nation did a good job of getting the word out on farm bill programs. We all did such a good job that today, we not only have enough applications to invest the 2003 farm bill money – we are back in the position of having a backlog of applications. EQIP alone now has a backlog of $1.4 billion nationwide. WRP has 2,800 pending applications, amounting to 475,000 acres. FPP has more than $100 million in pending offers for easements.


OUR STRATEGIC PLAN
We still have a lot to do to implement the farm bill over the next few years. This year, we are emphasizing three strategic ways to help ensure we invest the farm bill money wisely: reaching out to all producers; making sure the applications we approve meet local and national priorities; and leveraging Federal dollars to get the most conservation done.

Reaching out
The first thing we must do is increase our efforts to get the word out, so we are sure we have reached the underserved groups in the producer community. Beyond getting the word out to all producers, we must also be open, fair, courteous, and responsive to everyone.

USDA is being held increasingly responsible for delivering Agriculture programs to all citizens in this country, and that responsibility flows through agreements and contracts to everywhere Federal dollars are involved. NRCS and all of its partners must live up to this responsibility in everything we do, from meetings with landowners to delivery of services.

As part of our outreach effort, USDA is conducting a string of regional informational briefings to reach more farmers and ranchers. NRCS sponsored one of these briefings in Itta Bena, Mississippi, in November. I want to express my thanks to all of you who made that meeting a success.

Focusing on conservation goals
The second thing we have to do is focus more on conservation goals and less on programs. We must get as much good, priority-based conservation done on the ground as we can. We need to look at how applications relate to a producer’s overall conservation goals. And we need to look at how applications relate to national and local conservation priorities.

Getting more conservation done
The third thing we have to do is focus more on getting as much conservation done as we can. We need to look carefully at applications in a number of ways to be sure we are getting the most for the taxpayer dollar: The same cost share may not be needed everywhere at all times. The much bally-hooed 75 percent cost-share level authorized in the farm bill may become the rarity, not the norm, as we tailor the level of cost-share to the particular practice and what it achieves.

We at NRCS must manage our resources frugally to maximize the dollars we can invest on the land. We need to look at other sources of funds to see how to leverage the Federal dollar. The Federal government and the producers can get more conservation done when the cost is shared several ways.

We cannot award all of the largest contracts, because there are smaller operations that need incentives to conserve water and soil. For example, if we used all this year’s EQIP funds for contracts at the maximum level, we could only award about 1,500 contracts.


CONCLUSION
To summarize, let me say that we have had eight months to celebrate passage of the new farm bill and the birth of “the new golden age of conservation.” We have made a strong start toward implementing the new farm bill, with its tremendous investment in conservation on working lands. But to be successful in the long run, we need to be more strategic.

We need to make sure every producer knows about the farm bill and has a chance to participate. We depend on the continued efforts of conservation districts to help get the word out. We need to focus more on overall conservation goals and less on program implementation.

I mentioned that NRCS needs to focus on accepting applications that meet local and national priorities. Conservation districts can help spread the word on these priorities.

And finally, we need to get the most conservation done that we can for the money. We need to use incentives properly, and we need to leverage the Federal funding. Conservation districts can help by developing new partnerships. The new farm bill gives us the resources to work with new and existing partners and the flexibility to take on new projects. The more partners we have, the more conservation we can do. By working together to make the right choices, we can make this new farm bill live up to its potential.

I look forward to working with all of you to make the next golden age of conservation a reality.

Thank you.