What the Next Golden Age of Conservation Means for Wild Turkeys

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, at the National Wild Turkey Federation Annual Convention and Sports Show
Nashville, TN
February 14, 2003


Thank you, and good morning. As a farmer and a sportsman, it is a pleasure for me to be here today to talk about the conservation provisions of the farm bill and what it means to wildlife groups, such as the National Wild Turkey Federation.

Today, I would like to give you an overview of the new farm bill, talk a bit about what USDA and its partners need to do to successfully implement the bill, and, finally, suggest a few things the National Wild Turkey Federation and its members, can do to get the most out of the conservation provisions of the new farm bill.

The National Wild Turkey Federation and its members already are doing much to conserve and improve wildlife habitat and other natural resources. The new farm bill increases funding for conservation and opens up new opportunities to improve habitat for wild turkeys and other animals. Whether you are a biologist, State agency professional or farmer, the bill means more opportunities for you to reach your conservation goals.

The farm bill provides a framework for addressing unique local concerns, including habitat issues. In addition, the farm bill will help producers implement voluntary solutions for complying with or even avoid being covered by provisions of all kinds of environmental regulations. NRCS can provide one-on-one technical assistance for reaching these goals.


FARM BILL PROGRAM RUN DOWN

The farm bill represents the largest investment in conservation on America’s working lands in farm bill history. The farm bill will result in an increase of $17.1 billion in conservation spending over ten years.

The farm bill announces our entry into what I call “the next golden age of conservation.” It provides a great deal of flexibility for America’s farmers and ranchers, to help them enhance the natural resources on their lands, while also maintaining industry profitability. Most importantly, the new farm bill is heavily focused on working lands conservation.

Funding increases in all programs offer more farmers and ranchers more options for addressing their natural resource challenges.

The biggest single program in the farm bill is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The farm bill provides an extra $5.5 billion for EQIP. This fiscal year EQIP will have about $700 million. EQIP is a program with more benefit for turkeys than may first meet the eye. The proposed rule is out for EQIP with a 30-day comment period.

Other programs show similar increases.

The farm bill provides $360 million for the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program over six years. That could mean $30 million for WHIP in FY 2003.

The new farm bill provides for several programs to protect working farmland and ranchland, including the renamed Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program and the new Grassland Reserve Program.
FPP will have nearly $600 million over six years, including about $100 million for FY 2003. The Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program keeps land in production, while easing the tax burden.

The Grassland Reserve Program will have a quarter of a billion dollars in mandatory spending to enroll up to two million acres of grazing land. It remains to be seen how much of that money will be available each year.

In addition, the Wetlands Reserve Program has significant increases in its acreage cap. Secretary Veneman released $275 million in WRP funds this fall, and we were able to enroll more than 200,000 acres.

The new Conservation Security Program will provide payments for producers who have historically practiced good stewardship on their agricultural lands and incentives to do more. We issued the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for CSP earlier this week. You can see it on our web site. That comment period is also 30 days.


OUR STRATEGIC PLAN

So, what have we, at USDA and our partners been doing to implement the farm bill, and what do we need to do in the future to ensure its success? The farm bill meant release of about $700 million for conservation programs late in the last Federal fiscal year.

NRCS offices around the country dusted off the old applications, took in new applications, assigned them priorities, ranked the applications, and, by the end of the year, nearly the entire $700 million was committed. We funded more than 19,000 EQIP applications with $414 million in new farm bill money and more than 800 applications for WRP, with $274 million.

Getting all that money invested in such a short time is a tribute to the hard work of NRCS staff and to the preparedness of NRCS field offices, as well as the strong interest on the part of America’s farmers and ranchers.

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.

This backlog means that for farmers, NRCS professionals, and our partners hard work lies ahead. Tough decisions will need to be made as to how to rank and prioritize the applications.


IMPLEMENTING OUR CONSERVATION STRATEGY

There is more to implementing the farm bill than just accepting applications as they come in the door. To be truly effective, we need to be more strategic in three major areas: getting the word out – which includes making sure producers, rural landowners, State agencies, and others have reasonable expectations of what the farm bill can help you accomplish; making sure the applications we approve meet local and national priorities; and leveraging Federal dollars to get the most conservation done.

GETTING THE WORD OUT

The first thing we need to do is increase our effort to get the word out. We have new tools and new resources, and we need to tell that story. The word is getting out, but it has not reached everyone who needs to know. This meeting is another way of letting more people know about the farm bill. And, I just met with the Federation staff about exciting ways to get the word out.

It might be fair to say we have reached those who are well tuned in to our usual – and even modern – ways of getting the word out. But, we have not done enough to reach other audiences -– especially the traditionally underserved farmers and ranchers, including minorities, women, beginning farmers, and part-time farmers.

The farm bill is designed to extend opportunities for every farmer and rancher to reach his or her conservation goals. To make that potential a reality, we have to reach out to every farmer and rancher.

FOCUSING ON CONSERVATION GOALS

The second thing we have to do is focus more on conservation goals and less on programs. Our grand strategy is not to pile up a large number of applications. Our strategy is to get as much good, priority-based conservation done on the ground as we can. We must move beyond numbers of applications to consider how to get the best and most conservation done. 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, including habitat.

The key to reaching individual and local conservation goals is to keep decisions at the local level. That is why we are creating rules that are “lean and local” to implement the new farm bill. The rules are simple and leave the decision making to local officials. That is where the opportunity for your involvement to make habitat improvement will be greatest.

GETTING MORE CONSERVATION DONE

The third thing we have to do is focus more on getting as much conservation done as we can, as widely and as wisely as we can. The foundation of our effort is to offer incentives to producers who practice conservation. Part of the idea of incentives and cost share is to make it possible for producers to undertake conservation practices that they could not normally afford to do. Another part of the idea of incentives s to leverage tax dollars to get more conservation done. This is where the opportunity for the National Wild Turkey Federation comes to the forefront.

We need to look carefully at applications in a number of ways to be sure we are getting the most for the taxpayer dollar.

We need to look at local farm and ranch communities to see how incentives and cost shares operate. 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 will be a rarity, not the norm, as we tailor the level of cost-share to the particular practice and what it achieves.

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. The National Wild Turkey Federation will be a key partner in improving habitat.


CONCLUSION

Before I conclude, let me suggest that both the National Wild Turkey Federation and the State agencies look seriously at the opportunities to provide technical services to our agency in delivering the farm bill. We can’t do it without your help.

To summarize, let me say that we have had nine 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 farmer, rancher, and rural landowner knows about the farm bill and has a chance to participate. We depend on the continued efforts of organizations like the National Wild Turkey Federation 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, including water and soil conservation, air quality, and habitat. Organizations like the National Wild Turkey Federation can help spread the word on these priorities. But, beyond local and national priorities, conservation activities on any given farm or ranch should meet the conservation goals of the owner and operator.

One-on-one technical assistance from NRCS can help producers fine tune their conservation goals and decide on the practices that are right for them, both from a conservation standpoint and from the standpoint of economic return.

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. Organizations like the National Wild Turkey Federation can help.

Your members have the passion and the energy to help landowners maintain and improve habitat. I saw that last night at the banquet. And, since many of your members are landowners, Your organization is in a position to know what private landowners need to make habitat improvement projects work for them.

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. And that should be good for Wild Turkeys.

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

Thank you.