News

NRCS: Helping Create a Better Future for Fish and Wildlife

Extended version of remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, NRCS
at the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Annual Meeting

Atlantic City, NJ
September 30, 2004

Thank you very much for this opportunity to talk with you about what the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is doing for fish and wildlife these days. To summarize in the fewest possible words, I would say, “Quite a lot,” thanks to the 2002 farm bill and its record investment in conservation on private lands.

When President Bush signed the 2002 farm bill into law, he set in motion an increased investment of more than $17 billion in conservation, including dramatic increases in funding for programs that benefit fish and wildlife. In addition, the President has announced a series of initiatives that will result in the restoration of millions of acres of wetlands and improvement of millions of acres of habitat for some of the most significant wildlife species in the United States.

This afternoon, I will go over some of our accomplishments and give you an outline of the President’s initiatives for fish and wildlife.

Those of you involved in fish and wildlife agencies here in the United States are well aware of the role of private lands in providing habitat in our Nation. For the benefit of the international members here today, let me briefly point out that 70 percent of the land in the United States is private land.

The amount of private lands varies widely, with some of the western States having less than a quarter of their lands in private hands, and some of the eastern States having ninety percent or more of their land in private hands. But, overall, it is fair to say that a large amount of the work done to improve habitat takes place on private lands. And that means the work has to be done voluntarily by the landowners, with Federal and State agencies and nongovernmental organizations acting as partners of the private landowners.

Conservation in the United States, including improvements in fish and wildlife habitat, is highly decentralized, depending heavily on local conservation leadership to build the partnerships needed to get the job done. This is an important point. Decentralization of conservation is a major capacity issue for NRCS

This afternoon, I am going to go over some of the ways in which NRCS has helped private landowners improve the fish and wildlife habitat on their lands.

The way we measure these accomplishments is changing fairly rapidly. It used to be we could count up the dollars spent or the acres treated and call it a day. But we are being called on – as are government agencies at all levels – to demonstrate in more tangible ways what we are actually accomplishing with the taxpayers’ dollar.

The administration has made this kind of accountability a cornerstone of its effort to focus government spending on programs that can demonstrate results – which is really what good government is all about. So I will talk about some of our accomplishments in the old-style terms of dollars and acres and also go over some more tangible accomplishments in terms of actual population increases for various species of fish and wildlife. I will also talk just a bit about a Federal program now underway to develop much more precise ways of measuring the environmental benefits of conservation practices.

I mentioned the dramatic increase – an increase of more than $17 billion in conservation spending over a ten-year period – represented by the 2002 farm bill. We knew from the beginning that we would need to improve our technical infrastructure AND enlist the help of many partners to put that kind of money to work on the land.

This afternoon, I also want to take a few minutes to talk about our accomplishments in improving our technology and building partnerships.

NRCS Funding for Healthier Habitat

First, let’s look at the funding for conservation programs on private lands.

The great news is that we can now talk about billions of dollars for conservation, rather than millions. As of early August, NRCS had obligated $1.4 billion in 8 farm bill programs in FY2004 alone. It looks like our farm bill programs will have more than $2.1 billion in FY2005. Final Congressional action is pending.

For 2004, we also have $623 million for Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA). That one-year budget for CTA is almost as much as our entire agency budget was twenty years ago!

Here we stand, on the last day of the Federal fiscal year, having invested a grand total of more than $2.8 billion doing the business of conservation over the last 12 months.

Looking only at the 2004 farm bill program budget, how much of the $1.4 billion of NRCS obligated funds went to fish and wildlife habitat? That depends on your conservation perspective. You could say all programs benefit wildlife, and they do, to an extent. Certainly, the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), the Grassland Reserve Program (GRP), and the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) directly contribute wildlife habitat to the agricultural landscape.

WHIP

WHIP is USDA’s largest cost share program for wildlife. The $36 million obligated in WHIP as of August of 2004 will grow to $360 million over the next six years. Add the 25-50 percent cost-share landowners will contribute from their own pockets, and we will have an investment of nearly three quarters of a billion dollars specifically for wildlife habitat.

NRCS recently announced that an additional $600,000 in WHIP funds will help landowners in 21 States improve fish and wildlife habitat on their private lands.

WRP

WRP accounts for more than $280 million in financial and technical assistance for 2004. As you know, wetlands provide habitat for hundreds of species of wildlife.

GRP

This year, NRCS originally had $61 million for the new Grassland Reserve Program for improved grazing through rental agreements or easements. USDA announced in August that $2 million in additional GRP funds is available for special projects to help protect greater sage grouse habitat in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Washington. Each State will receive $500,000 to protect and enhance sage grouse habitat on GRP easement lands, with technical assistance and additional financial assistance through State and local partnerships.

Today, Secretary Veneman announced nearly $1.3 million of additional funding for 11 States, including money for sage grouse habitat in Colorado, Washington, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

CRP

CRP is administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency, but NRCS funded technical assistance for CRP in the amount of $55 million in 2004. President Bush recently announced a number of initiatives under the Conservation Reserve Program. He directed Secretary Veneman to enroll an additional 800,000 acres into the CRP to increase our protection of environmentally sensitive land, improve wildlife habitat, and improve and restore wetlands. The sign-up period ended last week.

At the same time, President Bush announced a bobwhite quail initiative. We will set aside $125 million in financial assistance this year to help farmers make this happen on 250,000 acres. Sign-up will be from October 1 through December 31, 2004.

President Bush also announced a $200 million initiative that will help farmers and ranchers restore wetlands outside of the flood plain, and wetlands that are part of temporary, shallow lakes. This important initiative will also cover 25,000 acres, and provides a missing part in our wetlands restoration efforts. Signup will run from October 1 until December 31, 2004. This initiative will be really good for bobwhite quail.

We need your help.

Other Farm Bill Programs

Four other farm bill programs combine for nearly $1 billion in allocations in 2004.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program allocated more than $900 million for conservation on working lands, including new funding for ground and surface water conservation activities. Many of these programs positively affect fish and wildlife, with beneficial impacts on water and air quality as well as habitat. Water quality means more and healthier fish.

One of the most exciting provisions of the 2002 farm bill is the Conservation Security Program. This new program is designed to reward the farmers and ranchers who have done the most conservation on their lands and to stimulate other farmers and ranchers to do more. As Secretary Veneman says, “CSP rewards the best and motivates the rest.” To qualify for the highest level of CSP payments, landowners must address all of the resource concerns on their entire operations – and that includes wildlife habitat.

CSP started relatively small this year, with only $41 million. We selected 18 watersheds across the nation to participate in CSP this year. About 2,200 landowners in these 18 watersheds qualified for CSP and were awarded CSP contracts. Nearly a quarter of these contracts include wildlife practices or enhancements, and the payments under these contracts add up to nearly $1 million.

As CSP grows and comes to include farmers and ranchers in every watershed across the country, it will be a powerful tool to stimulate conservation on our private lands. And that is good news for fish and wildlife.

While I am talking about new programs, I want to mention another program that we will be announcing this fall – the Healthy Forests Reserve Program. This program is authorized through 2008 by the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. It will help restore and enhance forest ecosystems by promoting the recovery of threatened and endangered species, improving biodiversity, and enhancing carbon sequestration.

We hope to formally announce this hew program in the next few weeks. There will be ample opportunity for public comment during the rulemaking process, and I hope you will make your views known.

Healthy Habitat on the Land

Now, let’s look at what this investment in conservation is buying us on the land.

The impact of farm bill programs on wildlife habitat is unmistakable. The NRCS Performance Results System shows that in each of the years of 2002 and 2003 the agency helped improve upland wildlife habitat management on more than 11 million acres. Acres of improved management are expected to be at least that many in FY 2004 as well.

What does that mean? Well, if you were to put all that land side by side and end to end, you would have an area of uplands wildlife habitat that would cover the States of New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island.

Let’s look again at the four farm bill programs that contribute most directly to fish and wildlife habitat:

WHIP

WHIP has more than 9,000 contracts for which $74 million have been awarded since the year 2000. The goals are to create or manage habitat for species including the grasshopper sparrow, bobwhite quail, greater sage grouse, short-eared owl, Karner-blue butterfly, gopher tortoise, Louisiana black bear, Eastern collared lizard, Bachman's sparrow, ovenbird, Topeka shiner, and acorn woodpecker.

WRP

We have added about 200,000 acres to WRP each of the last two years. Imagine the wildlife that could be supported on an area of wetland habitat the size of a football field. Then multiply that by 400,000. That’s the land that will be devoted long-term to wildlife habitat from just two years through WRP.

After years of wetlands loss, USDA and NRCS programs have helped farmers and ranchers produce a net increase in wetlands on agricultural lands, as shown by National Resources Inventory figures released by Secretary Veneman earlier this year. We are also helping the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service speed completion of their “Status and Trends” wetlands inventory by providing funding for that effort.

President Bush is proud to be the first President to achieve a net gain in agricultural wetlands. And, he pledged on Earth Day in April to achieve a 3 million-acre gain in wetlands. It is going to take a lot of work in every State and the active participation of State agencies to reach that ambitious goal. But, working together, I am sure we can do it.

GRP

GRP is improving nearly a quarter of a million acres, for grazing, as well as wildlife habitat.

CRP

The more than 35 million acres of grasses and trees in CRP alone is a cumulative habitat area larger than the entire National Wildlife Refuge system and all State-owned wildlife areas combined, not counting Alaska. The 2002 Farm Bill increased the number of acres authorized for CRP enrollment by 3 million up to 39.2 million acres. CRP’s Farmable Wetland Program was extended to all States, and the cap increased to 1 million acres.

President Bush recently directed Secretary Veneman to start a national dialog on how best to maintain and expand the benefits of CRP in the future. President Bush wants us to look for new ways to combine Federal, State, Tribal, and private efforts into an even more effective conservation movement in this country.

This spirit of cooperation goes beyond CRP and applies to every conservation program. Last month, President Bush signed an Executive Order on Cooperative Conservation, directing Federal agencies to work in partnership with the American people to protect this Nation's environment. Some of the best conservation and environmental protections result when landowners and communities work together. The President wants our Federal agencies to support this culture of responsibility and to respect private landowners by being good neighbors and good environmental partners.

Other Farm Bill Programs

Let me get back to the accomplishments of the farm bill programs, and let you know some of the wildlife benefits of the programs that are NOT directly targeted at wildlife.

There is good news in the EQIP program. Just one example: NRCS recently held a special, expedited sign up to obligate nearly $775,000 in EQIP funds to help preserve fluvial arctic grayling habitat in the Big Hole River in Montana.

PL-556

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program. Since Congress established this program, NRCS has helped local sponsors construct more than 11,000 flood control and multi-purpose dams in 47 States, creating more than 300,000 acres of surface water.

These watershed lakes often offer some of the best fishing in a State, because they included built-in fish structures and have a mix of deep water and shoreline riparian areas. Many of them are surrounded by wildlife friendly grass and tree plantings. As a matter of fact, more than 10 million acres of upland wildlife habitat have been involved in these projects. In addition, the program has enhanced 170,000 acres of wetlands. Right now, more than 100 of our watershed lakes are being managed specifically for wildlife.

Many of these projects are co-sponsored by State fish and wildlife agencies. I attended a PL-556 anniversary celebration at one such project on the Badger Creek Watershed in Iowa. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is a sponsor of that project.

Watershed projects are an example of the idea that flood control, water supply, erosion control, and recreation may be primary conservation purposes, but we can get extensive wildlife benefits from basic conservation programs if we think about and plan for wildlife habitat as well.

Wildlife Population Trends

I mentioned that the old ways of reporting our accomplishments in terms of dollars spent and acres treated do not meet the modern expectation that we be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of what we do. Specific benefits to wildlife and fish are often masked in the overall effort to track dollars and acres.

But I am happy to report that the situation is changing. NRCS will be placing more emphasis on establishing and reporting wildlife habitat practices, with fish passages, riparian forest buffers, shallow water management for wildlife, wetlands enhancement, wildlife watering facilities, and other wildlife friendly practices in the system. And we will be tracking the environmental benefits of these practices.

One step toward tracking environmental benefits is a five-year study NRCS, the Agricultural Research Service, and many other partners. We are working together to determine the conservation benefits of government conservation programs on agricultural lands.

The study, called the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) involves nationwide assessment of conservation benefits plus in-depth studies in 20 selected watersheds around the nation. Starting next year, CEAP will give us annual information on the effects of many conservation practices, including wildlife habitat and riparian restoration.

The data from these studies will be of great value to Federal and State agencies when it comes time to justify our budget requests. Beyond being a budget tool, the data will also help demonstrate the effectiveness of various conservation practices.

Without ways to measure the effects of practices, we have had to rely on local information. Much of that information combines the results of NRCS programs with the results of other wildlife habitat improvement efforts by State fish and game agencies, because we all contribute to habitat. With that said, here are some demonstrated examples of improvements in wildlife populations:

National Wildlife magazine had this to say about what just one program – CRP – accomplished over a 10-year period:

CRP has helped triple the pheasant population in South Dakota and double it in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Ohio. In Missouri, more than half of all bobwhite nests occur in grass planted through the program. Thanks to CRP, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse are on the increase in Colorado, and prairie chickens have quadrupled their numbers in Minnesota and have returned to parts of Texas where they haven't been seen in years. Upland-nesting ducks have flocked to prairie-pothole CRP land, where their reproductive success has more than doubled from a low of about 10 percent in the 1980s.

White-tailed and mule deer also have taken to the thick CRP cover, and the program has helped increase pronghorn herds in Oklahoma and improve elk habitat in California. Mice, rabbits, and other small animals also do well in CRP fields, and these creatures provide food for predators.

Here are some impressive results from just one State Iowa:

Just after the turn of the 20th century, there were no wild turkeys in Iowa. Now, wild turkeys number in the thousands and are found in nearly all of Iowa's 99 counties. Only one bald eagle nest could be found in Iowa in 1977; now there are more than 100 nests and more than 2,500 eagles spending time in Iowa. River otters nearly disappeared in Iowa in the 1900s; now, they are found in three fourths of the State's counties.

Peregrine falcons, nowhere to be seen in 1955, are nesting in Iowa now. Duck populations are up 20 percent, whitetail deer are plentiful, and recently, the first hatch of wild trumpeter swans in 115 years occurred in northeast Iowa. Two streams in Iowa recently produced the first, documented natural reproduction of rainbow trout in the State.

This kind of information may be anecdotal, but it does demonstrate that great things are happening for wildlife around the country.

Improved Technical Abilities and Partnerships

I mentioned that the increased investment in conservation has led us to improve our technical abilities and build on our network of partnerships. Here are a few of our accomplishments in these areas:

Professional Expertise

NRCS now employs 140 confessed biologists 18 percent more than we employed when President Bush took office. In addition, NRCS is working closely with State agency biologists in a number of States, to carry out farm bill programs.

Some of this expertise in biology will be concentrated and integrated in our three new National Technology Support Centers, which we just opened this month in Greensboro, NC; Fort Worth, TX; and Portland, OR. Each of the Centers has a number of Special Technology Development Teams. Two of the teams in Fort Worth will be devoted exclusively to wildlife and wetlands.

These centers will build on the good work done in the past by the NRCS Wildlife Habitat Management Institute, and will fully integrate wildlife management into our core services to the State and field.

In addition to providing expertise in biology, we also help landowners and others – including wildlife managers – make wise decisions based on the water supply forecasts from our SNOTEL snowpack monitoring system in the mountain West and through our SCAN system for monitoring drought conditions.

Technology Transfer

We now have more than 70 cooperative projects around the country to develop and transfer new technology on wildlife habitat to NRCS field offices. Most of these projects evaluate the effect of differing habitats on specific species. In many cases, the agreements are with universities or wildlife groups and are intended to show the wildlife and fish response to the plants and other conservation practices recommended by NRCS. Species range from birds to butterflies to aquatic species to bats, bison and elk.

Last month, NRCS awarded $1.2 million for 11 selected studies in nine States as part of a Bobwhite Quail Restoration Project. This grant supports an initiative to create 250,000 acres of bobwhite quail habitat by increasing early successional grass buffers along agricultural field borders, which could boost bobwhite quail numbers by 750,000 annually.

The Bobwhite Quail Restoration Project is being implemented in conjunction with Mississippi State University and includes involvement from the Southeast Quail Study Group and Quail Unlimited. The project evaluates the effectiveness of conservation practices in the restoration of northern bobwhite and its habitat and develops technology that assists field staff in working with landowners.

Partnerships

One of the major new areas of partnership under the 2002 farm bill is the Technical Service Provider process. The farm bill created a conservation workload far too large for NRCS to handle alone. Fortunately, the bill provided a mechanism for us to use the help of private sector and non-Federal experts to do much of the work of planning and implementing conservation.

We have certified nearly 2,100 service providers, and have 1,300 other certifications in process,

We have Memorandums of Understanding with eight major certifying organizations, including three for wildlife. In addition, we have a number of State fish and wildlife agencies working with us under contribution agreements.

We set aside $40 million in FY 2004 for technical services. I am eager to learn how much of that $40 million will be invested around this table. There has been an unmitigated success adding capacity to NRCS.

The NRCS has also partnered for years with numerous wildlife organizations, and more recently has formalized relations in a number of cases. NRCS has agreements or memorandums of understanding with organizations including The Nature Conservancy, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Trout Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, Quail Unlimited, the Wildlife Society, Audubon, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and others.

The input from these organizations, at National, State and local levels, has been invaluable in making conservation programs truly wildlife friendly. For instance, representation of wildlife groups on State Technical Committees has helped to better incorporate wildlife needs into conservation programs.

I would also like to mention our ongoing partnership with the Wildlife Habitat Council. For years, we have been working together to promote Backyard Conservation and to produce a series of wildlife leaflets.

The Future of Wildlife Management

The past couple of years have been a great time for wildlife management at NRCS. We have been able to help more farmers and ranchers and rural landowners improve more habitat than ever before. And those accomplishments are just the beginning. We are looking at doing even more in the future. We have our technology infrastructure in place. Every month, we add new partners to the efforts.

And the budget picture looks good. President Bush has requested $4.4 billion for conservation programs in FY 2005 – an increase of $1.5 billion (53 percent) over FY 2001. One highlight of the budget is that it includes about $2 billion for the Conservation Reserve Program.

The 2005 budget request for the Conservation Security Program is $209 million, which will allow producers in every State to participate in this program. And this is just the second step toward creating a program that will eventually reward all farmers and ranchers who implement good stewardship practices on their lands – including improving fish and wildlife habitat.

The FY 2005 budget also proposes to spend $349 million on our two key wetlands programs – the Wetlands Reserve Program and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act Grants Program. This represents an increase of more than 50 percent over FY 2001 for those two programs.

You can see from these numbers why I often say that we are entering the Next Golden Age of Conservation. I look forward to working with State fish and wildlife agencies to make this golden age a reality.

Thank you.