As Prepared for Delivery

Conservation Perspectives, Programs and Prospects

Remarks by Dana York, Associate Chief
Natural Resources Conservation Service, at
American Indian/Alaska Native Employee Association
Asian Pacific Islander Organization
Annual Training Conference
Anchorage, AK
August 16, 2006

Thank you, Angela (Biggs). I am delighted to be with you in Anchorage. I especially appreciate the willingness of AI/ANEA and the APIO to join forces for your training conference this year, as Bruce suggested. As you all know, Bruce has been confirmed as Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs.

As we begin, I want to pay tribute to the people who traditionally lived on this land, those who walked here 10,000 years ago—the Denaina (dee NYE na) Athabascan (atha BAS kan) people. And I want to recognize the AIANEA Elders:

• Lee Debe
• Louie Dick
• Joe Joaquin (wah KEEN)
• Norman Lopez
• Marie Meade
• Loretta Metoxen
• Billy Smith
• Jerry Wolfe

This morning I want to talk with you about conservation perspectives, programs and prospects—where do we stand today and what lies ahead.

Accomplishments under the 2002 Farm Bill

First, I want to look briefly at what NRCS has accomplished under the current farm bill. Even though you’ve all been part of this, I think you’ll be amazed at just how much we have done, working with our partners and the farmers and ranchers we serve.

Just to mention a few highlights, we have:

• Assisted one million farmers and ranchers.

• Applied conservation on more than 130 million acres of working farm and ranchland—that’s under EQIP alone!

• Helped farmers apply more than 14,000 Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans.

• Invested $6.6 billion directly with farmers and ranchers.

Consolidating the Gains

As you all know, we’ve declared 2006 as the year of “consolidating the gains.” Very simply, that means completing the work we’ve begun—wrapping up old business, completing the contracts we’ve signed and getting conservation on the ground. It also means fine-tuning our business tools so we can accurately and fully account for all the progress we’ve made.

Our work this year will pave the way for what lies ahead—the farm bill of 2007.
We want to complete the work under the 2002 farm bill to get ready for even greater challenges to come.

2007 Farm Bill

Last summer and fall Secretary Johanns and other top USDA officials held a series of 53 listening sessions all around the country to hear directly from farmers and ranchers about what they’d like to see in the next farm bill.

USDA staff analyzed the information shared in these forums as well additional public comments submitted. Drawing upon these recommendations, Secretary Johanns is issuing a series of theme papers that discuss how USDA programs operate and options for changes.

The conservation theme paper came out June 8. I’m sure you’ll want to read it for yourself, and perhaps you have already. It’s available on the USDA website at www.usda.gov and there’s a link to it from the NRCS site as well. So I’ll just mention the highlights here.

Currently, USDA programs address conservation and environmental concerns through:

1. education and technical assistance,

2. financial incentive payments that
• help pay for conservation projects on working lands, OR
• help fund conversion of lands to conservation uses to achieve specific environmental benefits, OR
• help protect agricultural lands from conversion to other uses.

3. conservation compliance—fulfilling certain requirements to be eligible for other USDA programs, and

4. regulatory requirements—such as the clean air, clean water and endangered species laws.

The conservation theme paper includes a careful analysis of where conservation funds go. For example,

• Conservation Reserve Program funds go mostly to the Plains and Corn Belt while Environmental Quality Incentive Program payments are more concentrated in Western states where livestock producers are.

• 15 percent of all farms received conservation payments in 2004, averaging $5,330 per farm.

The paper also examines conservation payments by the type of farm—rural residence, intermediate or commercial—and by the income level of the farm. It includes information on program costs and distribution as well as economic and market effects.

There’s a discussion of world trade implications and what types of conservation payments qualify for “green box” treatment—in other words, don’t count against the U.S. because they aren’t considered to distort trade.

The conservation theme paper also lists some of the specific benefits achieved through our current conservation programs:

• 43 percent decline in soil erosion from 1982 to 2003

• Net gain of 260,000 acres of wetlands from 1997 to 2003

• Increases in wildlife habitat and populations

• Improvements in water quality through reduced sediment and comprehensive nutrient management plans, and

• Gains in air quality along with reductions in carbon emissions

Perhaps the most interesting section of the theme paper is the final one, which outlines four alternatives for changes in the conservation programs in the next farm bill. These, of course, are just possible options, not USDA or Administration policy or proposals.

The first option is to improve existing conservation programs by

• Making greater use of watershed or landscape approaches and “pay for performance” strategies, increasing the use of market mechanisms such as reverse auctions and bidding.

• Consolidating programs and delivery where there are common purposes and incentives.

• Balancing investments between working lands and conservation use, and

• Enhancing contributions to energy management and alternative energy sources.

The second option involves providing green payments for environmental benefits and income support. With this option, the goal is to create a market for environmental gains. If payments exceed costs, then farmers receive the extra dollars as income.

The third option described in the theme paper is to encourage private sector markets for environmental services. With this option, USDA would:

• Work with regulatory agencies to ensure that environmental goods produced by agriculture can be used to offset regulatory requirements on other sectors.

• Authorize development of consistent standards for estimating environmental goods provided by agriculture and forestry.

• Foster emerging markets through loans and grants.

The final option involves expanding conservation compliance or establishing a standard of care. Essentially this option calls for strengthening the link between price and income support and environmental benefits. It would require producers who receive support to control soil erosion, manage nutrients or meet soil and water quality requirements at a level similar to the requirements for Tier I of the Conservation Security Program.

Strategic Plan

We’ve talked about current conservation programs and consolidating the gains and possibilities for the next farm bill. But NRCS is also looking at the long-term—where conservation on working agricultural lands needs to go 5, 10, 15 and even 20 years from now.

That’s the focus of our NRCS Strategic Plan. We developed this plan with your help and input. It supports our mission: helping people help the land with an ultimate objective of productive lands and a healthy environment.

To help us move from vision to reality, we have identified six goals—three foundation goals and three venture goals. Our foundation goals cover traditional NRCS concerns:

• high quality, productive soils;
• clean and abundant water; and
• healthy plant and animal communities.

The venture goals focus on emerging resource concerns related to current economic and demographic trends. These include:
• air quality,
• an adequate energy supply and
• working farms and ranch lands.

The plan also identifies three strategies we will use to address these concerns:

• cooperative conservation,
• a watershed approach and
• a market-based approach.

This plan provides a solid blueprint to drive us forward. But it also offers sufficient flexibility to enable us to adjust to the inevitable changes that will occur—including whatever the next farm bill brings—and to recognize local priorities.

Human Capital Strategic Plan

Aligned with our strategic plan is our new Human Capital Strategic Plan. We call it “Conservation First, People Always.”

The plan recognizes that our success depends upon a workforce with the technical expertise, dedication and ability to work collaboratively with a diverse customer base. It provides strategic thinking and guidance for managing our workforce following careful analysis of the changes we can expect with the coming retirement wave. It outlines our response in terms of priorities for the next 12 months as well as goals and objectives for the next five to ten years.

Our human capital goals focus on five key areas:

• Recruitment and retention
• Leadership
• Performance culture
• Talent development and knowledge management, and
• Human capital effectiveness

Increasing Diversity in NRCS

The importance of a diverse workforce is clear in each of these areas. And we have made a number of strides over the past year in our efforts to maintain and build a diverse workforce.

I want to thank our special emphasis program directors for all that they do to promote a diverse workforce. They’ve been busy this year, and we have seen the results of their efforts.

For American Indians/Alaska Natives, we now have

• 345 NRCS employees—just over 2.6 percent of our workforce, including 5 Alaska Natives employed here in the 49th state.

• 5 Washington Internship for Native Students working at headquarters this summer

For Asian and Pacific Islanders, we now have

• 198 NRCS employees—an increase of 41 from 2005, bringing representation up to 1.6 percent of our workforce

• Three new graduate scholarship participants—all recruited by Arizona—who will be working for NRCS in Arizona, California and Indiana during the summers while they are pursuing masters degrees

Each group also now has one member among the 17 Senior Executive Service positions in NRCS.

In addition, our Outreach Division now reports directly to the Chief, under the supervision of Arun Basu, Special Assistant to the Chief for Outreach and Diversity. This new arrangement makes Outreach parallel to our Civil Rights Division, which also reports to the Chief.

I mentioned a minute ago that one of the key areas of our Human Capital Strategic Plan is talent development. One way we are seeking to nurture and grow our own people is through the new Development Opportunity Placement Program. This program offers details and developmental assignments to build experience and expertise to prepare our staff for future responsibilities. Some of these jobs will include temporary promotions.

If you’re interested in growing and expanding your capabilities, these assignments offer an excellent opportunity. We advertised three positions in headquarters earlier this year— for a conservation policy analyst, a program analyst and a management analyst—and we’re reviewing the applications now.

We expect to announce two more positions in the fall. Watch the job listings on my.NRCS.

We’re also seeking new hires representing diverse backgrounds through a number of outreach efforts. For example, NRCS took the lead in sponsoring an inter-agency career fair at the University of California at Davis in April, and California hired one student trainee as a result. Two Alaska Native students participating in the Student Career Experience Program—SCEP—have signed on for full-time positions with NRCS.

As some of you know, the tribal scholars and AAPI scholars programs were not funded this year. We need to take another look at those programs for 2007 to see how we can ensure that they produce future committed conservationists who want to work for NRCS.

Serving Our Customers

I also want to talk briefly about what we’re doing for our customers who are Asian, Pacific Islanders, American Indians or Alaska Natives. We now have 383 field offices serving Indian Tribes in the lower 48 states, including 61 offices on tribal lands. In addition, we are establishing a National Tribal Conservation Advisor Council to provide ideas and information to the NRCS Chief.

We also have a new Tribal Relations Coordinator—Edie Morigeau, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in northwestern Montana.

Further, we’ve gone the extra mile to help our customers—for example, encouraging the National Agricultural Statistical Service to translate its agricultural census form into the Hmong language so Hmong farmers will be able to participate in the 2007 agricultural census.

With Arun Basu’s help, the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance has been successful—after four years of trying—in obtaining a $300,000 grant from CSREES to establish conservation districts on Indian Reservations to address conservation issues and develop their long range plans. Today there are 25 tribal districts, with three more under development.

We have helped Pacific Islanders apply practices under farm bill programs within watersheds that benefit coral reef ecosystems. And we’ve supported the Alaska Village Initiatives’ Private Lands Wildlife Management Program to assist villages in managing habitat for moose and increasing wildlife both for tourism and subsistence.

Arun also worked with South East Asian farmers in the San Joaquin Valley to promote a new conservation practice—using permanent trellises to grow vegetables—which will help meet air quality regulations—and save the farmers substantial money in the future. Another effort involves reaching out to 50 to 60 South East Asian growers to promote individual conservation plans and appropriate recordkeeping so that they will be eligible to participate in farm bill programs in the next few years.

Here in Alaska, seven EQIP applications from Alaska Natives were approved in 2006 for a total of $1.8 million, and four Alaska Native corporations will receive 65 percent of the WHIP allocation—just under $1 million. Together these programs address conservation concerns on 3.74 million acres of land owned by Native corporations.

Conclusion

I am convinced this is a great time to be a conservationist. We have a clear vision and many new opportunities to get conservation on the ground. At the same time, we face many challenges: global warming, high energy costs and an uncertain world market for agriculture.

Recently I read a profile of broadcast journalist Ann Curry who’s covered stories in the midst of some of the most dangerous conflicts on Earth. She spoke of what she learned from her parents. Her father taught her to “be of some service” to others. Her mother, a Japanese woman who fell in love with a GI during the occupation after World War II, shared her own secret to a successful life: gambaru. That’s Japanese for “Never, ever give up, even if there’s no chance of winning.”

All of us in NRCS share a deeply held passion for the land and a strong commitment to helping people help the land. Regardless of the challenges or the obstacles, we are here to serve, and we are never, ever going to give up on our vision or our pledge to help farmers and ranchers conserve our natural resources.