The NRCS Watershed Program

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service
At the Eighth National Watershed Conference, Council Bluffs, IA,
June 9, 2003

Thank you, Dan [Lowrance]. Good morning everyone.

Thank you, Leroy [Brown] for the excellent introduction to Iowa. You brought back a lot of memories for me. You see, it was while I was working on Iowa conservation issues that I cut my conservation policy teeth – conservation compliance on the Loess Hills, Ag drainage wells, Swampbuster, and, of course, my first introduction to P.L. 566.

It is a pleasure to be here today to talk about what the NRCS watershed program has accomplished in the last couple of years and what we hope to accomplish in the future. I want to pay particular attention to what we all can do to accomplish more through the watershed program.

I would like to express my sympathy to the members of the Coalition on the loss of your president, your friend, Larry Smith. Larry was a valuable part of this organization and made a great contribution to conservation overall. I talked with him only weeks before his untimely passing. It is hard to believe he is gone.

As I was thinking about my remarks for today, it struck me that the work that the Watershed Coalition; its predecessor, the Watershed Congress; and NRCS have done in watersheds really is one of the best examples around of the principles of conservation on private lands.

The Watershed way of doing conservation is more than 50 years old, making this work among the earliest examples of government-supported private conservation around. The principles behind the Watershed Program are fundamental – partnership, local leadership, watershed-based planning, technical assistance, and accountability.

Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson wrote in the 1955 Yearbook of Agriculture that,
“The new watershed protection program (PL-566) clearly should NOT be looked upon as some miracle coming out of the federal treasury. If it is successful, it will be because local people working through their organizations with the help of their state government assume and maintain principle initiative.”

And it truly is these principles of partnership and local leadership that have made the Watershed Program a success. This is a “bottoms-up” approach, where the community stakeholders identify resource issues and select the treatment alternatives that they know will work in their political, social, economic, and environmental circumstances.

Watershed-level planning is also important. We all know that the Soil Conservation Service – now NRCS – started out with an emphasis on watershed-level efforts. But a growing emphasis on programs over the years and decades has often diverted much of our attention from watersheds and toward individual farms and ranches.

The Watershed Program is the outlier in that trend. It is the one program that has retained and strengthened the watershed approach to conservation over the years. Many other agencies have emulated – or would like to emulate – the watershed approach exemplified by this partnership.

Finally, the Watershed Program is a good example of the importance of providing good technical assistance, rather than relying solely on financial assistance. Good conservation begins with technical assistance, and the Watershed Program is an outstanding example of using technical sources from Federal, State, local agencies, and private institutions.

The Watershed Program has always relied on technical assistance from end to end – from planning projects to designing project measures. And the use of technical experts from a variety of sources outside of government will grow, as we come to rely more on technical service providers.

The latest principle of conservation embodied in the Watershed Program is accountability. Accountability is taking on an ever important role in conservation, as all of government – due to the leadership of the Bush administration – moves to demonstrate the results achieved from each taxpayer dollar.

The Watershed Program has long been a leader in accountability. The Watershed Program tracks and reports monetary and non-monetary project benefits to the community, and summarizes those benefits nationally. It is perhaps the most “outcome” measure oriented program administered by NRCS!

For example, installed projects are currently providing over $500 million of flood prevention benefits annually from more than 1,700 projects in the nation. And the program has improved water quality in 24,000 miles of streams. In recent years, we have authorized 12 to 15 new projects annually.


Accomplishments of the Watershed Program

Historically, the projects undertaken under the Watershed Program were for flood prevention. Today, about 60% of the requests are for land treatment, water quality, and even water conservation, which has gained in popularity due to the needs of our growing population and the water scarcity issues highlighted by recent droughts.

Over time, the Watershed Program has created or improved water supplies for 28 thousand homes and businesses.  Interest is increasing to enhance or create new water supply opportunities in irrigated agriculture and for domestic use.

Watershed rehabilitation brings us many exciting opportunities to assist communities to rehabilitate, or in some cases, remove their aging dams and improve public health and safety for their residents.


Recent Progress

There has been considerable progress with watershed rehabilitation since the National Watershed Coalition met in Richmond two years ago, which was soon after passage of the Watershed Rehabilitation Amendment of 2000.

Let me review a few of the highlights:

• Last year was the first year Congress appropriated funds under the 2000 Amendment. Ten million dollars funded the beginning of 43 watershed rehabilitation projects in 17 states.

• This year (FY2003), Congress appropriated $30 million for watershed rehabilitation – a 300% increase! This allowed funding of 30 new projects and continued progress on those that were started in 2002.

• Counting the pilot projects that were initiated in 2000-2001, we – all of us in the partnership – now have 110 watershed rehabilitation projects in 22 states. Implementation of these projects will require $100 million.

• State Conservationists and Watershed sponsors have committed to an ambitious workload this year, including initiating 24 rehabilitation plans, completing 33 rehabilitation plans, completing 25 designs, initiating construction on 21 projects, and completing construction on 9 projects.


The Farm Bill Programs and Watershed Objectives

Passage of the 2002 farm bill opens up even more opportunity for watershed work. The new farm bill provides for an increase of $18.5 billion in conservation spending over ten years. And some of that investment is available to supplement the work done by Watershed Program funding.

For example, the FY-03 funding for farm bill programs provides more than $1 billion for wildlife, water conservation, farmland and grassland protection, wetland conservation and virtually all other resource treatment needs. These farm bill funds can work in tandem with the Watershed Program to improve our social, economic, and environmental resources. Combining these resources in innovative ways will give us a better chance of achieving the goals and benefits that many Watershed Sponsors have identified in their project plans.


Challenges

Even with the increased funding for the Watershed Program, and the increases for other programs in the farm bill, we still face challenges:

• We expect the backlog of Watershed Programs to approach $2 billion by the end of the year.

• In 2003, NRCS had $190 million of projects ready to be installed, and the appropriation could only fund about half of that amount.

• Watershed Project sponsors in 24 States obtained Congressional Earmarks to install their projects, which consumed the entire appropriated amount for project installation.

I want you to know that I am committed to implementing watershed operations and watershed rehabilitation in a timely manner. Last month, I sent a letter to all State Conservationists expressing my expectations. I asked each State Conservationist to develop a strategy to address the projected watershed rehabilitation workload in their state.

Since this is a locally led process, they will need your help in developing their strategy that will include assisting project sponsors to prepare for watershed rehabilitation, identifying high priority rehabilitation projects that provide the greatest threat to lives and property, addressing gaps between currently available staff and those needed to implement the anticipated workload, coordinating with state dam safety agency and conservation partners, and marketing the on-going watershed program, including watershed rehabilitation.

Since I stepped in this role as chief, I have been concerned, as I know many of you have been, about the need to maintain adequate capacity within NRCS to deliver watershed rehabilitation. We currently have a team studying the staff needed to address the projected watershed rehabilitation workload. This team is developing alternatives to address the staffing gap.

I believe there is a need to maintain and enhance a strong core of technical expertise within NRCS. However, I also know that there are many opportunities for the private sector, including watershed sponsors, to assist with this new workload. This study, due July 1, will help us decide how the remaining staff needs could be met.

I also think we need to do a better job of telling the public about the good conservation job being done by the National Watershed Coalition, NRCS, and, most importantly, local watershed sponsors. And we need your help to make your local constituents aware of these changes. I would like to see us make more opportunities for news releases, feature stories, and photo opportunities to highlight our work. Everyone should be interested in hearing about how we are improving public health and safety for the local communities.

Most Watershed Rehabilitation projects are complex projects that may take 2 to 3 years to complete, working closely with project sponsors and local communities under the best of conditions. We also need your help to make sure funded projects are fully planned and implemented as a clear demonstration that we can deliver this program in a timely manner. This kind of local success is critical for future rehabilitation, and for the entire watershed program.


Conclusion

The future is bright for watershed operations and watershed rehabilitation, as it is for all of conservation. I often say that the 2002 farm bill, with its massive investment in private lands conservation and its emphasis on working lands, has ushered in the next golden age of conservation.

But the farm bill isn’t the whole story by any means. The Watershed Program, in partnership with the National Watershed Coalition and others, is also going to be a part of this golden age.

Thank you.