Conservation Perspectives in 2005

remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service

at the American Forage and Grassland Council (AFGC)
Annual Meeting
Bloomington, IL
June 14, 2005


It is a pleasure to be here today to talk about conservation in 2005 and what lies ahead. Congratulations to AFGC President-elect Ken Johnson. I understand you will get the gavel tonight.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service is proud to partner with the American Forage and Grassland Council in expanding opportunities for conservation on our nation’s grasslands and in recognizing the important role professional managers can play.

As you all know, grasslands make up the largest land cover on America's private lands. Privately-owned grasslands and shrublands cover more than 525 million acres in the United States.

It may look simple to the casual observer—just let the grass grow, turn the cows out and walk away. But we all know that the right management of grassland makes all the difference—increasing productivity and benefiting the environment. It takes both education and experience to properly manage grasslands.

I am looking forward to signing a Memorandum of Understanding with AFGC that recognizes Certified Grassland Professionals, a new certification program that you’ve developed. Through this MOU, individuals who’ve received AFGC’s certification will be eligible to become NRCS technical service providers.

Not only are you helping us build the cadre of TSPs, but with this certification program, you’re building the professionalism of grassland managers. Further, I understand AFGC will continue to use this conference to offer training to help grassland managers maintain their certification and stay up to date with the newest science and technology.


70th Anniversary of NRCS

NRCS has a long history of partnership. In fact, we’re celebrating our 70th anniversary this year. We have been a partner in conservation since 1935, helping people help the land.

I look at this anniversary year as a good opportunity to celebrate the durable nature of the Conservation Partnership and to make farmers and ranchers and their city cousins more aware of the benefits of conservation on private lands.

Implementing the 2002 Farm Bill

Last month, we passed the third anniversary of the 2002 farm bill. The bill became law just a week before I became Chief of NRCS, so it and I share parallel histories.

Over the last three years, we have

• Invested billions of additional dollars in conservation.
• Written or revised rules for farm bill programs based on input from thousands of producers and partners.
• Implemented new programs.
• Involved many new partners in conservation.
• Implemented the Technical Service Provider process to help producers plan and implement their conservation activities, and
• Conducted extensive outreach to be sure every farmer and rancher knows about farm bill opportunities.
   

These three years have been a major challenge, but I think we are now implementing the farm bill pretty smoothly. Which is fortunate, since Congress (and you all!) will be using our performance as an indication of how well USDA and the conservation partners can handle additional conservation workload under the 2007 farm bill.

The 2002 farm bill greatly expanded NRCS’s ability to address grassland conservation. It increased the availability of both technical and financial assistance.

During FY 2004, we had a record investment in conservation of nearly $2.8 billion. Already this year, we are making great progress in addressing grazing and forage conservation needs.

Nationwide in 2005, through all the various NRCS programs, we are working to improve nearly 1.1 million acres of grassland through brush management, prescribed grazing, prescribed burning and other programs.
We are also helping landowners install 5.4 million feet of fencing!

I want to spend a few minutes talking about some of the specific programs we have to partner with farmers and ranchers in conserving and improving grasslands.


Grassland Reserve Program

The 2002 farm bill created the Grassland Reserve Program. This important new program, GRP, helps landowners restore and protect grassland, rangeland, pastureland, shrubland and certain other lands.

In 2004, we provided $56 million for more than 1,000 projects covering 83,000 acres. This year we’ll be providing more than $128 million in financial assistance through GRP.

We expect GRP will reach its statutory fund limit of $254 million this year—based on funds spent in 2003, 2004 and 2005 along with GRP money allocated to technical assistance.


Grazing Land Conservation Initiative

Most of you are familiar with the Grazing Land Conservation Initiative. GLCI is a nationwide collaborative process of individuals and organizations working to maintain and improve the management, productivity, and health of the Nation’s privately owned grazing land.

The GLCI Steering Committee includes producers from nine national organizations, including AFGC. Your representatives are Dave Forgey and John Spain. Bill Tucker is an alternate. We appreciate their participation and expertise.

Over the last decade, across the U.S., there’s been increased interest in grazing. GLCI has held two National Grazing Land conferences, and we’re now planning the third.

Under GLCI, there have been grazing land tours and workshops as well as brochures, videos and pamphlets on grazing management. You’ll also spot the GLCI exhibit here at this meeting!

Through GLCI, NRCS has increased emphasis on technical assistance to grazing lands. We’ve greatly expanded our technical capabilities, especially in the Eastern U.S., with 14 new state level grassland specialists as well as local specialists.

In FY 2004 and FY 2005, $23.3 million was appropriated for GLCI. For FY 2006, the President’s proposed budget includes an increase in GLCI of nearly $9.7 million to help address invasive species.


Environmental Quality Incentives Program

NRCS’s largest conservation program is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. EQIP was authorized by the 1996 farm bill—and expanded significantly with the 2002 farm bill. The goal of this program is to promote agricultural production and environmental quality as compatible goals.

In 2004, EQIP

• Provided nearly $720 million in financial assistance to producers
• Involved more than 46,000 participants (less than 20,000 in 2003)
• Focused on livestock concerns—62.6 percent of EQIP funds.

This year—as of mid-April—we had received more than 90,000 applications for EQIP toward funding of slightly more than $1 billion.

Some of the practices involving grasslands that qualify for EQIP funding include:

• Prescribed grazing
• Fencing
• Nutrient management
• Livestock watering facilities
• Access points for livestock at streams
• Streamcrossing
• Pest management
• Pasture and hayland planting
   

Conservation Security Program

The 2002 farm bill introduced the Conservation Security Program to round out the portfolio of conservation programs. CSP is a working lands program that recognizes and rewards ongoing stewardship, and provides a strong incentive for others to follow the leaders in conservation.

Simply put, the goal of CSP is to reward the best and motivate the rest.

CSP features:

• Self-assessment process
• Management intensity
• Enhancement payments
• Management vs. structure payments

The program debuted last year:

• 18 pioneer watersheds in 22 States
• Nearly 2,200 contracts
• $35 million in contracts
• Nearly 2 million acres

In 2005, CSP sign-up ran from March 28 to May 27. We’re still working on a preliminary tally of the landowners who signed up, but the program covers:

• 220 watersheds
• 235,000 farmers and ranchers
• 185 million acres
• $202 million
• with 12,000-14,000 contracts expected

There are several unique aspects to CSP. First, of course, it focuses on rewarding those who lead the way in land stewardship.


Tangible Results Under CSP

Second, the program zeros in on tangible improvement and results. That means results that can be measured, a difference that goes deeper than the surface.

As you fly across the country, you see the visual impact of conservation—the conservation patchwork. Most of this conservation is related to soil erosion and water conservation—terraces, filterstrips, windbreaks, center pivots, sediment basins.

Typically, government agencies report this visible progress toward achieving environmental goals as outputs such as:

• acres managed (resource management systems planned or applied on grazing lands);
• acres created (such as wetlands); or
• permits issued (for regulatory agencies).

But success in reaching some environmental goals isn’t as easy to see or as simple to measure. How can we verify

• carbon stored,
• air quality improved,
• nutrient or pesticide loading avoided
• and water saved?

These objectives are clearly valuable—but not so clearly seen.

Environmental performance and actual field-based outcomes have proven difficult for agencies to establish and report. But it is possible.

I want to especially commend:

• Dennis Cosgrove, Associate Professor of Agronomy University of Wisconsin-River Falls;
• Dan Undersander, Professor of Agronomy, University of Wisconsin- Madison; and
• James Cropper, NRCS Forage Management Specialist.

Working as a team, this group developed a Pasture Condition Scoring system. This system helps people understand pasture conditions and make management decisions. We’re now using it to determine when an enhancement payment is appropriate under CSP.

NRCS is in the process of developing similar performance-based indexes for other major resource concerns, along with a payment structure that corresponds with the environmental benefit produced.

This is an example of CSP as a change agent for conservation. I am optimistic about the future of CSP for intensive and rotational grazing systems.


Technical Service Providers

The 2002 farm bill enables us to add technical capacity by using consultants to deliver conservation. We worked hard last year to build up our capacity to provide technical support by improving our Technical Service Provider process.

This process gives us a way to provide the increased amount of service demanded by the 2002 farm bill, while keeping government small and keeping functions that are available commercially from becoming part of the Federal government. This is not just plain good management, but also especially key during this time of fiscal austerity.

The Technical Service Provider process is strengthening the partnership between NRCS and conservation districts, States, professional associations, Tribes, and, of course, private sector professionals.
Shortly that will include Certified Grassland Professionals also.

More than 2,350 individuals have completed the TSP certification process.
We anticipate that TSP will continue to grow—with more work and more opportunities in the future.

We also have determined new, not-to-exceed rates for TSPs, based on new data. Last year, the rate increased overall by about 20 percent. These rates are posted on the TechReg Web site and are being used today. The TechReg site is a wonderful example of e-Government at its best.


Preparation for Next Farm Bill

As we look ahead, it’s clear we have a lot of conservation to do this year, and in 2006 and 2007. Over the next three years, the 2002 farm bill provides us about $9 billion in new conservation investments. That represents a tremendous amount of work for us, for our partners, and especially for the farmers and ranchers we serve.

Here’s what I’m telling NRCS employees: Don’t get too wound up about the 2007 farm bill. Implementation of the 2002 farm bill is job one.

We need to maximize our performance. We need to complete unfinished work from 2003 and 2004: look at older contracts, and get them done. The faster we can complete and close a contract, the less it costs. We can’t let those leftovers linger any longer.

We need to

• maximize our effectiveness,
• sign the largest number of contracts,
• benefit as many producers as possible, and
• support as much conservation as we can.

That’s our strategy to get ready for the next farm bill. And we’re looking forward to help from the new Certified Grassland Professionals.


The 2007 Farm Bill

Even as we seek to complete our work under the 2002 farm bill, discussions are beginning on the 2007 bill. Secretary Johanns has said he will begin holding listening sessions on the next farm bill this summer.
And he plans to reach out to every state.

The timeframe is probably similar to what we saw with the 2002 farm bill with discussions beginning about 18 months before the bill is actually signed, perhaps in the spring of 2007.

I believe the next farm bill will continue to embrace the same basic conservation themes:

• Working lands – economic sustainability
• Incentives
• Voluntary efforts to avoid additional regulation
• Efficient program administration
• Measurable results, and
• Meeting the President’s wetlands objectives

One of the concerns we face that the next farm bill must address is increasing globalization. It touches every one of us—when we put on our clothes in the morning, when we use office and telecommunications equipment, when we get behind the wheel of our trucks or tractors. I see globalization and world trade obligations nudging us toward greater investment in conservation.

Before the 2002 farm bill, AFGC developed some recommendations for agricultural policy called Stewardship for the 21st Century: A Report on America’s Forage and Grassland Resources and Needs. This policy paper pointed clearly to grasslands as the foundation for a vital agriculture sector and identified strategies for conserving and restoring them.

A number of AFGC’s specific recommendations became part of the current farm bill. As the discussions move forward on the 2007 bill, I hope you’ll be taking part and providing recommendations again.


Cooperative Conservation

When it comes to conservation, we all need to work together. One of President Bush’s commitments is to integrate our conservation efforts across agencies at all levels of government.

August 29-31, in St. Louis, the White House is convening a Conference on Cooperative Conservation to facilitate the exchange of information and advice related to cooperative conservation. The conference will involve the Departments of Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency. Even more importantly, our customers will be invited.

We expect the opinions expressed at the White House Conference will be useful in designing the conservation programs of the next farm bill and beyond.


Conclusion

I am hopeful that investment in conservation will continue to grow.
We have shown that:

• Programs can be administered efficiently—and transparently
• Incentives stimulate more conservation
• Many partners are interested in leveraging the Federal dollar
• Both urban and rural constituents support private lands conservation
• Programs work well in a portfolio approach.

Environmental stewardship is a critical responsibility for farmers and ranchers and for us all as a nation. As President Bush has said, “…stewardship is the daily work of America’s farmers, and those who own the land….“If you have to make a living off your land, it’s important to make your land as productive as is possible.”

At NRCS, our goal is to continue, sustain and expand the work we’ve been doing for seven decades: helping people help the land.

Thank you.

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