Better Habitat for Wild Turkeys

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service at the National Wild Turkey Federation 29th Annual Convention and Sport Show

Nashville, TN
February 18, 2005


Good morning. Thank you, Dr. [James] Kennamer, [Senior Vice President, Conservation Programs] for inviting me to be here today. It is a pleasure to be here to talk with the members of the National Wild Turkey Federation.

I met with you two years ago here in Nashville, and it is good to meet with you again. At that time, you and I and “Doc” Dettmer [then President, NWTF, now chairman of the board] signed a memorandum of understanding which established a framework for cooperation between NRCS and NWTF. We have been operating under that memorandum of understanding for two years now, and I think we have been working quite well together to enhance the productivity of habitat for wild turkeys and other wildlife.

I couldn’t be more pleased with what has happened since that time. We’ve gotten to know each other, worked through the growing pains and are now humming along smoothly. Thank you, Dr, Kennamer, for your leadership. The MOU has a 5-year life span, so we can look forward to three more years of cooperation – and beyond.

As you heard last night, President Bush believes strongly that conservation of private lands is vital to the health of our nation's resources and has provided high levels of funding for conservation in each of his budgets. He has also instructed all of the cabinet departments and agencies involved in conservation to work cooperatively with each other and our non-Federal partners to do the valuable work of conservation.


Farm Bill Funding for Wildlife

The 2002 farm bill increased funding for conservation and opened up new opportunities to improve habitat for Wild Turkeys and other animals. The tremendous investment in conservation, beginning 2-1/2 years ago and continuing through 2007, makes these exciting times for conservation.

Over the years, Congress has created a truly unique approach to conservation, a portfolio of voluntary programs to help private landowners produce the environmental benefits that society wants and needs. All of these programs benefit wildlife to some extent. Certainly, the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, the Wetlands Reserve Program, the Grassland Reserve Program, and the Conservation Reserve Program directly contribute wildlife habitat to the agricultural landscape.

I want to thank NWTF for helping landowners and NRCS by bringing together many partners to benefit wildlife. One example of this kind of cooperation is the National Wild Turkey Federation's Operation Oak program, which we will hear more about in a few minutes.

Operation Oak will plant 44,000 special oak seedlings across the southeastern United States this year, nearly two times more than it has planted in the past five years combined, thanks in part to a grant from NRCS. Operation Oak is a good example of cooperative conservation in action.

The 2002 farm bill is the first farm bill that identified wildlife as a direct concern. We have taken that to heed. We were able to help farmers and ranchers do quite a bit for wildlife last year, thanks to a record investment in conservation during the year (nearly $2.8 billion Federal dollars, plus about $720 million in contributions from others).

The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program alone devoted more than $27 million to the effort last year – nearly double the $15 million invested in 2002. Over the life of the farm bill, WHIP investment could reach as high as $360 million. Add the 25 to 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.

We signed more than 3,000 WHIP contracts last year. The goals are to create or manage habitat for species including wild turkey, bobwhite quail, greater sage grouse, Louisiana black bear, and acorn woodpecker.

EQIP is the largest conservation program for working lands. With about a billion dollars a year, EQIP helps promote agricultural production and environmental quality – including wildlife habitat – as compatible national goals. Last year, we signed nearly 46,500 EQIP contracts, providing more than $700 million in financial assistance to farmers and ranchers. We estimate that more than $160 million of that assistance benefited wildlife directly or indirectly. For example, more than $30 million went for brush management, and $5 -1/2 million for forest stand improvement.

Our newest program with a wildlife component is the Conservation Security Program – CSP. CSP recognizes and encourages all kinds of conservation on working lands. The first year of CSP was a great success! We enrolled producers in 18 watersheds in 22 States. We signed more than 2,000 contracts. This year, we will have more than 200 watersheds – enough to have at least one in every State and the Caribbean Area.

More than 500 CSP contracts last year included habitat management – about $1 million in payments overall. Since this program targets leading conservationists, it dovetails well with wildlife needs and objectives. Some of the leading watersheds for wildlife practices and enhancements were the Lower Yellowstone in Montana and North Dakota, the St. Joseph in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan, the Little River Ditches in Arkansas and Missouri, and the Lower Chippewa in Wisconsin.

We also accomplished great things in wetlands last year. 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.

We created or restored nearly 228,000 acres of wetlands last year. That is a lot of wetlands, but only 92 percent of our target. We need to do more if we are going to do our share in meeting the President’s target. We closed nearly 750 WRP easements last year.

Two USDA programs that are not administered by NRCS also contribute greatly to the quality of habitat on America’s private lands. Those programs are the Conservation Reserve Program – CRP – and the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program – CREP.

One of the CREP initiatives that President Bush announced last summer is $200 million to 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 USDA’s wetlands restoration efforts.

Another initiative announced by the president was a new initiative to increase the population of the northern bobwhite quail by 750,000 birds annually. This initiative created automatic enrollment of 250,000 additional acres of grass buffers on farms.

USDA also implemented the Grassland Reserve Program last year. We released the interim final rule for the program last summer. This is a program with great potential for synergy with the National Wild Turkey Federation. In 2004, NRCS started with $61 million for GRP.

Last summer, we announced an additional $2.5 million to protect and enhance sage grouse habitat in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Washington and Wyoming through State and local partnerships.

Last summer, President Bush announced another CREP initiative to improve wildlife habitat on America’s agricultural lands. USDA provided $125 million in financial assistance this year to help farmers make this happen on 250,000 acres. This initiative will be really good for the northern bobwhite quail and will likely benefit turkeys as much as quail.


NRCS Expertise at NWTF

We are proud to have Bob Hotchkiss of NRCS working at NWTF under an Intergovernmental Personnel Agreement. This is the first such arrangement between NRCS and a wildlife organization. It will help us work toward better habitat in all of our programs.

Our approach is to be pro-active, not problem oriented. I encourage you all to work closely with Bob to make our partnership a success.


Developing the Right Technologies

Now, let’s talk about future opportunities. Three quarters of our Nation’s lands are in private hands. We can only be successful in meeting our overall conservation goals if we are able to create viable habitats on these critical landscapes. The key is to develop the right technologies that will make the right improvements, rather than just improving habitat at random.

One way to find the right technologies is through Conservation Innovation Grants. These grants stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies in conjunction with agricultural production. The grants go to non-Federal governmental or non-governmental organizations, Tribes, or individuals for projects that accelerate technology transfer and adoption of promising technologies and approaches to address some of the Nation's most pressing natural resource concerns.

One example is a grant for native seed restoration for range and agricultural lands in Colorado. Native seed species are needed to help restore wildlife habitats and improve the quality of range lands. Another example is a grant for invasive species management for restored wetlands and native prairie uplands in Minnesota.

Last week, we announced that we are adding more opportunities for Conservation Innovation Grants through State-level competitions in 12 States and the Pacific Basin. The State-level competitions are a pilot program under EQIP. The State component gives State Conservationists a way to target CIG funds to individual producers, groups of producers, and smaller organizations that submit proposals to address the priority natural resource concerns in the State.
The States are California, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, and the Pacific Basin.

We need more wildlife tools in our tool chest. CIG is the way to do that.

In addition, the Technical Service Provider process is an area of growth for nongovernmental organizations and state agencies to add capacity. We simply need more biologists.


Conclusion

The future of conservation continues to be bright. The overall investment in conservation continues to grow. This year, we have about $3.2 billion – which nearly doubles the $1.7 investment in 2002. Last week, the White House released the President’s Budget Proposal for 2006. Total NRCS spending is proposed at $2.7 billion less than $100 million down in total from the 2005 budget proposal. This is a modest cut compared to many other spending areas.

Meanwhile, we have a lot of conservation to do this year, and in 2006 and 2007. And, it is not too early to start thinking about the 2007 farm bill.

The performance of the conservation programs this year will be the basis for how Congress sees the future of conservation. So, we – all of us who are interested in conservation – 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.

I think we are in a good position to maintain the momentum of this Golden Age of Conservation through the remaining years of the current farm bill and into the next. All we have to do is work together and invest our conservation dollars wisely.