NRCS: Conservation and Tribes

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service
at American Indian/Alaska Native Employees
Association for NRCS Eighth Annual Training Conference

Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana
June 29, 2005


Thank you, Shawn [Bigknife], for your kind introduction.

I especially want to thank the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes for hosting us here on their homelands on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. I know you’ve been glad to get some rain recently—even if it was a little more than you’d hoped for.

My thanks also to Ivan Dozier, President of AIANEA, for inviting me to speak today, and to Noller Herbert, the NRCS Tribal Relations Coordinator.

I want to recognize the Elder Council:

• Lee Debe,
• Louie Dick,
• Norman Lopez,
• Marie Meade,
• Loretta Metoxen,
• Billy Smith and
• James Wolfe.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom and providing leadership to the American Indian / Alaska Native Employees Association.

Working together, we seek to fulfill the mission of the Natural Resources Conservation Service: providing leadership in a partnership effort to help people conserve, maintain, and improve our natural resources and environment.

This year NRCS is celebrating its 70th anniversary. We’ve been a partner in conservation since 1935. That’s seven decades of helping people help the land.

This anniversary year is a good opportunity to celebrate our partnership with producers and reaffirm our commitment as NRCS employees to the agency’s mission.

We’re also celebrating an anniversary in Indian Country—but a much shorter time—25 years since we opened our doors on tribal lands in 1980.

With your help, NRCS has made great progress on tribal lands in a short time. But we still have a long way to go.

Implementing the 2002 Farm Bill

I want to speak for a few minutes about the 2002 farm bill and then look ahead a bit. In 2005, we’re into the third year of the 2002 farm bill. This bill

• doubled funding for conservation programs,
• re-focused conservation on working lands,
• demanded accountability, and
• rewarded stewardship.

And NRCS has been busy delivering on the promise of increased investment in conservation. 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,
• Established 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.

We’re not finished yet. We have a lot of conservation to do this year and in the future.

Between today and expiration of the current farm bill, we will invest about $9 billion in conservation. That represents a tremendous amount of work for all of us, for our partners, and especially for farmers and ranchers.

Fulfilling the promise of the 2002 farm bill is job one.

Getting conservation on the ground is our top priority. We have the expertise.

We have the commitment. Now we just need to get the job done.

We need to maximize our performance. We need to complete unfinished work from 2003 and 2004. We need to make it happen on tribal lands. We need to

• maximize our effectiveness,
• sign the largest number of contracts,
• benefit as many producers as possible,
• buy as much conservation as we can,
• bring on as much technology and advanced information as we can,
• assure the integrity of the conservation goals, and
• make the programs and services we offer as transparent as possible.

Since your last meeting, we have a new Secretary of Agriculture. He’s a man of integrity and compassion. A man who commands our respect.

Mike Johanns understands agriculture, and he understands conservation.

He knows that the two go together. He’s also made clear that conservation is one of his top priorities.

As he said recently, “…today there's consensus that conservation and economic success don't have to be mutually exclusive. It's a vision of cooperative conservation, working with and not against our producers.”

Cooperative Conservation

As the Secretary pointed out, one of the keys to the 2002 farm bill, and I believe, the next farm bill, is cooperative conservation. Last August, President Bush signed an Executive Order on Cooperative Conservation, asking Federal agencies to work in partnership with the American people to protect this Nation’s environment.

From August 29-31, the White House will host a Cooperative Conservation Conference in St. Louis. The goal is to facilitate the exchange of information and advice on ways we can work together—at all levels of government—in concert with communities and landowners to enhance and protect the environment.

NRCS will be part of that conference—as will other USDA agencies—and other departments including Interior, Defense, Commerce and EPA. Most importantly, our customers—including Tribes—will be part of this conference.

This is the first cooperative conservation conference in about 40 years. Only three similar national conferences have been held—President Teddy Roosevelt held the first. President John Kennedy held the second. And Lady Bird Johnson, President Lyndon Johnson’s wife, hosted the third.

This conference gives us a special opportunity to foster relationships and forge alliances that will enable us to move forward in voluntary conservation activities.

Serving Tribal Lands

I want to talk for a few minutes about the work NRCS—you all are doing with Tribes. In 2004, we had 763 Environmental Quality Incentives Program contracts to treat 1.82 million acres of tribal lands. These contracts were worth more than $2.1 million and represented about 2.9 percent of our EQIP funds last year. The largest number of contracts—130—were right here in Montana.

One of the concerns Tribes have raised is the $450,000 payment limitation in the 2002 farm bill. I’m very pleased to share with you that we’ve resolved that issue.
We’re working on a national bulletin to provide guidance.

As you know, in the spring we held listening sessions and accepted public comments to help us revise the national EQIP priorities. I want to assure you that in updating the priorities, we will be mindful of the sovereign status of Indian Tribes and trust land ownership issues.

In addition, we appreciate the work the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes are doing to pilot a new 2005 EQIP ranking criteria template. We’re looking forward to seeing how effective the template is in addressing conservation needs on the Flathead Reservation.

I was very pleased to learn that NRCS is funding the first four Grasslands Reserve Program contracts on tribal lands in Montana this year. Next year, here on Flatlands, we also have a unique Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program project to address habitat in abandoned mines for the Townsend Big Eared Bat. The tribal fish and wildlife program has identified this bat as a species of concern.

As you know, the 2002 farm bill completed the conservation portfolio with the Conservation Security Program to recognize and reward excellence in conservation. Last year, for example, under the pioneer CSP, the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin had two projects in CSP.

In 2005, 14 of the 220 watersheds participating in CSP include more than five percent tribal lands, and 32 watersheds have some tribal land. A total of 2.2 million acres of land in Indian Country are eligible for CSP in 2005.

In Montana, three of the 13 watersheds chosen for the 2005 CSP fall in part on the Fort Peck or the Flathead reservation. I understand we’ve received two applications from Tribes in Montana.

Last fall I met with the Tribal Elders on several issues related to tribal participation in NRCS programs. With their help, we’ve clarified EQIP requirements involving time restrictions on irrigation-related systems. We’ll be issuing a national bulletin on this shortly. In addition, we hope to better track conservation work on tribal lands through GIS and ProTracts.

A concern for Alaska Natives has been the subsistence definition that enables Natives to participate in EQIP. The Alaska State Conservationist and the State Technical Committee have worked with the Natives to modify the definition so it’s clear that Natives can sign up for EQIP.

NRCS Employees

NRCS has 383 field offices serving Indian Tribes in the lower 48 States, and 61 of our offices are located on tribal lands. We appreciate all the work our Tribal Liaisons are doing, and we know we need to continue our efforts to work with Tribes to get conservation on tribal lands.

I understand we have 329 NRCS employees that are American Indians or Alaska Natives in a workforce of 12,160. That’s two more than last year. I wish there were more.

We are committed to maintaining and improving opportunities for minority employees. That pledge is part of our Civil Rights Policy Statement, and it is also my personal goal.

I want to thank all of our American Indian/Alaska Native Special Emphasis Program Managers around the country for everything they do to promote a diverse workforce. This includes recruiting through several internship and trainee programs.

Last summer, NRCS hired 22 American Indian or Alaska Native students and eight career interns. We also had six new hires through a career fair held last November in Alaska.

Further, NRCS has four Washington Internship for Native Students hires in NHQ this summer, and we supported the placement of four last year. Plus, I’m looking forward in a few minutes to awarding five scholarships to students attending tribal colleges or universities.

These scholarships are unique in that the scholarships follow the students to graduation. Selected students also have the opportunity to work with NRCS during the summer.

2007 Farm Bill Predictions

I want to turn now toward the future for conservation. As we look ahead, the major topic on everyone’s mind today is the 2007 farm bill.

It seems everyone either wants to know what’s going to be in the next farm bill—or thinks they already know! And groups all across the country are lining up to either put in their two cents—or get their two cents!

Two weeks ago, Secretary Johanns announced the first of a number of listening meetings. It will be in Nashville on July 7. There will be more because I know he wants to reach out to as many states as possible.

The Secretary wants to hear directly from our customers—well in advance of Congressional debate and dialogue. In announcing the listening sessions, the Secretary said, “I do not begin this process with preconceived notions about the direction future farm policy should take. We will use the feedback we receive to help us determine the best course for a new farm bill.”

The listening sessions will focus on a variety of topics, including conservation.

We want to know how to:

• Maximize U.S. competitiveness
• Minimize unintended consequences
• Effectively and fairly distribute assistance to producers
• Best achieve conservation and environmental goals
• Provide effective assistance in rural areas, and
• Address agricultural product development, market and research

When it comes to conservation, we may hear some general themes or tenets, building on past farm bills. The 1996 farm bill broached the theme of working lands conservation—and that became a central tenet of the 2002 bill. The current farm bill significantly expanded the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and rounded out the conservation portfolio with the Conservation Security Program.

We know we need to have programs that are holistic, better integrated and more transparent. We know we need programs that work for all producers. Our programs should be size neutral.

We also know the next farm bill should be in tune with the President’s management agenda. It should focus on outcome-based measures—specific results—not miles of streams buffered or acres of land treated.

Returning to Our Roots

As we look toward the next farm bill, I think we’ll be moving more toward our traditional core business—knowledge-based conservation. The future will be more about technical assistance than dollars shared.

Whatever programs we have need to be simpler. We also need to streamline the application process, similar to what we’ve done with the CSP self-assessment tool.
We need to work with all farmers and Tribes. All of them need help from us putting conservation on the land.

Delivering Services

As you just heard, NRCS has a varied customer base, and it’s getting larger.
We need to deliver our services in a variety of ways. Many of our customers are getting more and more of their information and their services through the Internet.
We need to serve them effectively.

We put the CSP self-assessment workbook on the web. We also made it available on disk and on paper. Today, you can get a copy of your county soil survey in a telephone book format. Later this summer, you can get it online in a form that’s downloadable and available 24/7 and 365 days a year from any personal computer.
You won’t need a special program to get it, to understand it, to manipulate it. Our Web Soil Survey will let you select just the small area you want to see and give you the data you want—whenever you want it.

At the same time, we have customers who want to meet us face to face. We need to go toe to toe and belly to belly with them.

Some of our customers need more time to consult fellow landholders and reach consensus before making decisions. We must find ways to accommodate their timeframes.

In short, we want to reach out to each of our customers to provide the information and help they need in the way they want to receive it. That’s the service they deserve, and the service we’re proud to provide.

Conclusion

During the agency’s 70th year, we celebrate our many accomplishments. But we also remind ourselves we have more work ahead of us—including a lot of work on tribal lands.
With your help and commitment to conservation, when we reach our 100th anniversary, we will be living in a land filled with “respect, harmony and beauty,” in line with your motto. And we can say, along with our conservation partners, “We are the stewards of the land and the caretakers of Mother Earth.”

Thank you.
 

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