Looking to the Future of Conservation

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief Natural Resources Conservation Service at the National Association of Conservation Districts Spring Legislative Conference

Washington, DC
April 4, 2005


Thank you, Tim (Reich), for that kind introduction. Congratulations to Billy Wilson as the new president of NACD. And good morning to Krysta Harden. It is an honor to follow Secretary Johanns on your program today.

There is one thing that I talked about at the NACD annual meeting in Atlanta, that I want to mention again: This is the 70th anniversary of NRCS. We have been a partner in conservation since 1935, and NACD has been a major partner for most of that time.

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.

We showed a video in Atlanta showing the role of NRCS role in conservation. Let me remind you that copies of that video will be available for any of you who would like to show it in local, State, or regional meetings.


Leadership

With Krysta’s arrival last year and the passing of the torch from Gary to Billy this year, NACD has gone through important leadership changes. The arrival of Secretary Johanns is an important leadership change at USDA. Secretary Johanns is a friend of a strong agricultural economy and good conservation. He will be actively involved in creating the next farm bill.

But there are other leadership changes in the wind, both in and out of government that are important to the continued implementation of conservation.

Developing Strong Leadership

– Partner Organization Diversity Awards

I was proud of the partners in Atlanta, when they took the time to present their awards for leadership in promoting diversity in conservation. Diversity at all levels of the partnership is important to the long-term success of conservation. Gary Mast talked about this issue in his keynote address in Atlanta.

NACD and NRCS have been working closely for nearly two years now with each other and the other partner organizations in a special effort to increase the diversity of boards and committees and other leadership positions. The diversity awards presented in Atlanta grew out of that effort.

– Small-Scale Limited Resource Farmer Initiative

Last month, we announced an initiative to provide $6 million to small-scale limited resource farmers in 11 States and the Caribbean Area. This initiative grew out of leadership by United Farmers, USA, Inc., a farmer group based in South Carolina. It is a prime example of what can come from strong and diverse leadership in conservation.

This initiative will help small farmers overcome barriers they face in reaching their conservation goals. The funds will help farmers with 100 acres or less of cropland implement conservation practices. The States are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

New Areas of Cooperation between NRCS and NACD

I am happy to be able to tell you that NACD and NRCS will be signing a new memorandum of understanding tomorrow. The new Memorandum of Understanding includes some new areas of cooperation between NRCS and NACD.

– Walk a Mile in My Boots

The first area of cooperation is the “Walk a Mile in My Boots” initiative. NACD and NRCS are launching our own version of the “Walk a Mile in My Boots” program, an exchange between ranchers and farmers and government employees. The program already includes the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

These exchanges will give producers and NRCS employees a way to learn more about each other’s responsibilities and daily challenges.

– Strategic Planning

The second new area of cooperation is in NRCS strategic planning. NRCS is launching an ambitious strategic planning process this year. Given the challenges ahead of us, we must have a vibrant strategic planning process. As we wrap up farm bill implementation and farm bill rules, we need to approach the next farm bill with a new, vital strategic plan in place.

NACD will assist us by helping bring in our partners to assure a strong, locally led process that will help build the conservation effort of the future.


Conservation on the Ground

NRCS and the conservation partners had many accomplishments in FY 2004 -- with a record investment in conservation during the year (nearly $2.8 billion), including several new conservation programs. When I say ‘We,” I mean NRCS and the districts.

2004 Performance Data

We just recently completed tabulating our performance data for farm bill programs in 2004. I gave you a preview of this information at the Atlanta meeting. Since then, we have posted the information on our web site, and it is stirring up quite a bit of interest.

Financial Assistance Programs --

EQIP
• Financial assistance to producers: nearly $720 million
• More than 46,000 participants
• 62.6 percent of EQIP funds were associated with livestock concerns
• 60 percent of funded practices directly impact one of the four national EQIP priorities
• 40 percent reflect a primary impact on state or local priorities

WHIP
• More than $27 million
• More than 3,000 contracts
• 430,000 acres

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

Easement Programs –

WRP
• $274 million
• More than 1,000 contracts
• Close to 200,000 acres
– Overall, we were at 92 percent of our wetlands target.
– Need to do more to meet the President’s goal of 3 million acres
– Louisiana was the top state with 94 easements.
– Approved the first two Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Program projects -- one in Nebraska and one in Minnesota.

FRPP
• $88 million
• More than 550 easements
• Nearly 115,000 acres

GRP
• Implemented the program in 2004
• $56 million
• More than 1,000 projects
• 283,000 acres

You can find maps and tables with performance data for each farm bill program on the Programs tab of our Website at www.nrcs.usda.gov

Other 2004 Accomplishments

• Provided conservation technical assistance.
• Applied conservation system plans on more than 27 million acres of crop and grazing lands.
• Developed and applied nearly 10,000 comprehensive nutrient management plans (up from just over 8,000 in 2003).
• Mapped soils or updated soils maps on 28 million acres (up from 22.5 million acres in 2003).
• Provided emergency watershed protection assistance in nearly 100 cases.
• Helped fund more than 1,700 watershed protection and flood prevention projects.
• Implemented Conservation Innovation Grants.
• Earth Team volunteers donated nearly a million hours of their time.

Strategic Accomplishments
• Developed national and local priorities for conservation programs.
• Reduced costs through program efficiencies, management, and automation.
• Increased Grant opportunities:
– Conservation Innovation Grants – nearly 200 proposals
– Conservation Partnership Initiative – more than 30 proposals
– Biomass Research and Development Initiative – 650 proposals.
• Successfully reorganized many parts of NRCS to provide even better support to the conservation efforts of America’s farmers and ranchers and enhance technical capabilities.

Rounding out the Conservation Portfolio

We added two new programs in 2004 to round out the conservation portfolio.

Conservation Security Program

The first was the Conservation Security Program. The first year of CSP was a great success! This year, we will have 220 watersheds – enough to have at least one in every State and the Caribbean Basin.

Secretary Johanns announced the 2005 sign-up period in his National Agriculture Day address. The sign-up began last week and will run until May 27. It took off like a rocket. Nearly 1,900 producers attended workshops and nearly 3,000 visited our offices. We received more than 700 applications and completed more than 60 interviews.

We have also published an amendment to the interim final rule for CSP. There is a 120-day comment period on the amendment, and I hope NACD and the districts will submit comments. CSP is a major change for all of us.

It complements our other programs by filling the missing link of conservation for leading-edge conservationists. Concepts like the self-assessment process and management intensity will spread to other programs.

Grassland Reserve Program

We also implemented the Grassland Reserve Program. We released the interim final rule for the program last summer. In January, we completed the first conservation easement in the Grassland Reserve Program,


Building Technical Support

We also worked hard last year to build up our capacity to provide technical support for conservation activities all across America.

Technical Service Providers

One thing we did was to make improvements to the Technical Service Provider process. The Technical Service Provider 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 very key during this time of fiscal austerity.

The Technical Service Provider process is actually strengthening the partnership between NRCS and conservation districts, States, professional associations and firms, Tribes, and others who will be providing the service. We made adjustments to the rule last year to ensure that we would continue to build upon the partnership. The final rule was published in the Federal Register on November 29.

More than 2,200 TSPs have completed the certification process. We also have determined new not-to-exceed rates for TSPs, based on new data. The rate increased overall by about 20 percent. These rates are posted on the Web and being used today.

The TechReg site is a wonderful example of e-Government at its best. Through it, we have a great tool that service providers can use to apply for certification, NRCS can use in the certification process, and producers can use to locate providers.

Wetlands data

On Earth Day – one of my proudest moments as Chief – the Secretary of Agriculture announced that the United States had achieved no net loss of wetlands due to agriculture. The data supporting that announcement came from the National Resources Inventory.

The President cited the same data in announcing his goal of restoring or improving 3 million acres of wetlands in the next five years. Last week, Secretary Johanns announced that we are well on our way to posting further gains on wetlands.

National Technology Support Centers

In September, NRCS opened its new National Technology Support Centers and Remote Sensing Laboratories in Greensboro, NC; Fort Worth, TX; and Portland, OR. We had great opening ceremonies in each location. Local dignitaries, State conservationists, region assistant chiefs, other headquarters officials, and the local NRCS employees and conservation leaders attended.

The centers and labs will become our agency’s nucleus for developing innovative conservation technology for private lands as well as increasing the effectiveness of its technological legacy that has served the needs of farmers and ranchers for more than 70 years.

We created these centers with the primary goal of providing better technical support to our State-level conservation experts, so they can better serve our customers and partners.


Innovation

NRCS has announced a number of initiatives recently. I would like to mention a couple of them today.

New CTA Program Policy

First, we released a new comprehensive policy for operating the Conservation Technical Assistance Program (CTA). I mentioned this in Atlanta, but the formal announcement came the following week.

The new CTA Program policy establishes national priorities for the program. One of this year’s priorities is to help farmers and ranchers comply with environmental regulatory burdens. The other four priorities are the same as those already established for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program – air, water, soil, and habitat. As we have all learned with EQIP, national priorities fit well with the locally led process while adding focus to the program

It is because of this effort that we were able to argue for the $37 million increase in CTA for Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans. The next step is for the allocation team to look at how to provide greater focus in anticipation of additional resources. Measuring the CTA Program against established priorities will demonstrate how effective and efficient CTA is and how it contributes to the President’s Management Agenda.

Having a clearly defined policy will provide direction to NRCS employees, partners, and others as to what CTA can and cannot accomplish.


What the Future Holds

I see a bright future for conservation on America’s private lands. The overall investment in conservation continues to be high. This year, we have about $3.2 billion -- nearly double the $1.7 investment in 2002.

The President’s Budget Proposal for 2006 includes $2.7 billion NRCS spending less than $100 million down in total from the 2005 budget. This is a modest cut compared to many other spending areas. While we have wake-up calls for watershed and RC&D, we also have increases for CTA -- $37 million for AFO/CAFO, and $10 million to control invasive species – an unprecedented $47 million increase proposed for CTA.

Preparation for Next Farm Bill

Meanwhile, we have a lot of conservation to do this year, and in 2006 and 2007. But, it is not too early to start thinking about the 2007 farm bill. We need to continue our efforts to streamline existing farm bill programs.

We have worked hard to improve program management by eliminating duplication of effort and unnecessary steps in conservation programs, and we must continue to do so. We have also learned some things from the Conservation Security program that would help make other programs more efficient.

– Maximize Contracts

As I mentioned earlier, another thing we need to do is get as much conservation done as we can this year. You can help us on that. How well are we serving the public? How well have we lived up to the confidence Congress placed in us by passing the 2002 farm bill?

So, we need to maximize our performance this year. We need to complete unfinished work from 2003 and 2004 – look at older contracts, and get them done. We need to maximize our effectiveness -- sign the largest number of contracts, benefit as many producers as possible, and buy as much conservation as we can.

– Increase Accountability for CTA

We need to demonstrate greater accountability for CTA. We need to help the livestock sector comply with the exploding burden of air and water regulations. This is why the President is proposing to increase funding.

– Improve Strategic Planning

And we need to place more emphasis on strategic planning. I look forward to having the assistance of NACD in this effort.


Factors in Growth of Conservation

In conclusion, let me say that we are in a good position to continue the gains in conservation what we have made over the past few years. But we also face major challenges. The status quo will not do the job!!!

We have record budgets for conservation, but the need for conservation continues to grow. Given present budgetary constraints, it is likely that the growth in the federal investment in conservation will level off. We will need to demonstrate our effectiveness to maintain and build on the existing support for conservation.

And we will need to be creative to come up with new technologies, new program efficiencies, and new partnerships to get more conservation done with the money we have. If we work together and work creatively, we will be able to maintain and build on the high levels we have attained under the 2002 farm bill.

Thank you.