Citizen-Centered Service

Remarks prepared for delivery by Arlen L. Lancaster, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, at The National Organization of Professional Hispanic Natural Resources Conservation Service Employees Annual Training Conference

Bloomington, Minnesota
August 7, 2007

Good morning. I appreciate your kind invitation to participate in your annual training conference. I found your theme inspiring: “Creating Leaders to Conserve America for Future Generations.” It is forward looking and certainly calls us to action. It also gives me a lot to talk about this morning, but I will try to leave some time for your questions at the end.

There are some natural-born leaders; I am sure that as soon as I said that, one or two popped into your head. You know the kind of person I am thinking of: decisive, charismatic, confident, quick to smile, never at a loss for words. For most of the rest of us, though, leadership is a skill to be mastered. And that is great news, because it means we can all get better at leading. Attending conferences like this is one way to build those skills; I applaud you for taking time to be here and for making your professional development a priority.

Our mission is “Helping People Help the Land.” We need strong leaders to do that effectively and successfully over both the short- and long-terms. In particular, as our customer base continues to change, we need strong Hispanic leaders to ensure we are meeting the needs of emerging communities. Your commitment today, as well as the legacy you leave the NRCS of tomorrow, are key to the agency’s future.

Our Strategic Plan calls us to be “citizen-centered”, but I think our name really says what we do best: Natural Resources Conservation Service. We are here to serve. There is no doubt that helping to conserve resources on private lands serves the public good. Regardless of where they live, everyone across the country benefits from productive soils, clean and abundant water, healthy plant and animal communities, clean air, an adequate energy supply, and working farms and ranch lands. Therefore, every acre and every landowner counts in our effort to effect change on the land.

We do face some challenges, though, with respect to our workforce, the changing face of our customer base, technology transfer, information management and funding constraints, among others. As Chief, my priorities are to prepare the agency to meet these challenges head on, make conservation easier, and be accountable in a way that lets us demonstrate the many real benefits of conservation on agricultural lands.

These would be daunting tasks, if not for the genuine technical expertise represented here before me, your willingness to serve and partner, and your leadership. The work you do every day makes communities stronger nationwide and we must ensure similar strong leadership continues to be available to future generations of agency personnel and landowners.

I would like to take a minute to talk you through some of the challenges I just mentioned in more detail, after which I will invite your help in addressing them.

The current composition of our NRCS workforce gives me pause for a couple of reasons. To begin with, nearly 80 percent of personnel in mission-critical occupation areas are eligible to retire by 2010. These are our true technical experts, so we face potentially significant gaps in leadership and technical assistance capability due to this retirement “bubble”.

Second, when we compare NRCS with the population, clearly we can continue to do more to make our agency look like the rest of America. We took a good hard look at this in our recent human capital strategic planning process. If you have not reviewed the final plan yet, I encourage you to do so. I truly believe that diversity in all its forms strengthens the agency.

As you are well aware, our customer base is changing and doing so rapidly. The 2002 Census of Agriculture is really revealing in this regard. From 1997 to 2002, the number of principal operators increased by 8.6 percent for African Americans, 20 percent for American Indians/Alaska Natives, 13.4 percent for women, and an extraordinary 51.2 percent for Hispanic/Latino operators. There are further indicators of change beyond agriculture, too.

Regarding the challenges posed by technology transfer, we see new technologies, procedures, research emerging daily. How do we decide which to adopt? How do we transfer these new technologies to the field and support them in place? How do we get them into the hands of landowners quickly but with enough assurance of their effectiveness? I do not pretend to have ready answers to all these questions but they merit our serious consideration.

As with technology transfer, dramatically increased sources of information are a double-edged sword, for us and our customers. I was recently asked what I thought the biggest challenge facing producers is today and I responded with two words: information management. An expanding array of tools—such as the Internet, global positioning system read outs, and on-line soil surveys and data—offers tremendous potential to farmers and ranchers, yet I sometimes fear they only add to the confusion. If I am a producer trying to make decisions about my land, how do I know which sources to trust? Because our goal is to help landowners make decisions from a position of strength, we will use Web-based tools where appropriate, but must keep in mind that there is no substitute for the on-site, hands-on planning and technical assistance we are known for.

I have visited 25 states during my year as Chief and have probably been asked about our budget in all 25. I know this year was a challenge, funding-wise. I feel good about what I think will ultimately be in the 2007 Farm Bill and our appropriations for 2008 but, given all the competing priorities government wide, we can be certain we will never have all the money we can use or want. Therefore, it is imperative that we spend wisely and are transparent and accountable in doing so. We must maximize opportunities for cooperative conservation, focusing on our core missions and partnering thoughtfully on activities that make a difference on the ground.

Meeting these challenges requires leadership, respect for diversity and, as I just noted, increasingly cooperative conservation. And, naturally, it requires your help. Now let me spend a few minutes outlining where I think you as individuals and you as members of this employee organization and the larger conservation community fit in.

As I was developing my remarks, I made a list of ways I wanted to ask you to help. I was later pleased to see how perfectly several items on your webpage aligned with what I wanted to say.

In a nutshell, to successfully meet the challenges I mentioned, to make conservation easier for our customers, and to be fully accountable and transparent, we need to make every landowner and every acre count for conservation. We must be tireless in reaching out to beginning farmers and underserved communities; the Secretary’s Farm Bill proposals help there.

I really like what the NOPHNRCSE website says on this topic: “The organization can help leadership identify and remove possible barriers in the Hispanic communities to ensure equal delivery of programs.” It makes so much sense! With such rapid growth in Hispanic principal operators, who better to lead us in this effort than you?

In order to make every acre count, we need to expand our partnerships and be willing collaborators. We need to make conservation easier and more accessible to all landowners. Traditionally, underserved customers particularly need our assistance.

Again, I know this aligns with your vision statement describing NOPHNRCSE as “A professional organization working in harmony with its partners for natural resources conservation.” Doing conservation across a landscape or watershed is too complex to attempt without experts and stakeholders at every level. Wide-ranging partners also bring different authorities and funding streams to the table, nurturing innovation and providing needed flexibility to solve problems.

It is critical for us to keep service, conservation planning and other essential activities front and center. If we remain focused on our core missions, I am convinced we will make forward progress every day, regardless of unforeseen changes in funding, personnel, or policy.

To address all these challenges, we must also gain and retain customers’ trust to help them make sound decisions for the land. This is an ongoing commitment to the communities we serve. Technical competence matters in this effort; so does follow through. We can further enhance our credibility by being able to demonstrate the impacts of past conservation actions, as well as the likely impacts of future ones.

Our Conservation Effects Assessment Program, or CEAP, is designed to help us do that; we have made a lot of progress during the program’s first five years and I am currently reviewing the steering committee’s vision for the next five. We are closing in on producing results from the cropland component. In about 18 months, for the first time other than with soil erosion, we will be able to measure the effect of our work—your work—in a way that is really meaningful to Congress, planners and customers.

To retain landowners’ trust, we should design structures, plans and programs to support their needs, not ours. And, as I’ve already suggested, we have to make programs, applications, and procedures as user-friendly as possible.

We must champion technical excellence and professional development if we want to be ready for the future. I noted the potential loss of technical experts in the near-term due to retirements and also the demands placed on us by changing technologies. Let me ask you then, are you prepared to step up? What are you doing to keep your skills current? When was the last time you updated your Individual Development Plan? There are many opportunities to refresh outmoded skills or acquire new ones, through distance learning, our partnering colleges and universities, graduate programs, formal training and even detail assignments.

Let me point out Carl Lucero, our National Leader for Clean Water, in this regard: he is masterful at using details to gain valuable experience and insight into other agencies. During his career, he has been detailed to the Environmental Protection Agency and spent time with the Army Corps of Engineers. This unique experience influenced his selection to a team put together by Under Secretary Rey to look at market-based strategies for environmental stewardship. This is cutting-edge work that Carl began preparing himself for years ago.

And, I am really pleased to share the news, with those of you who haven’t already heard, that both Carl and NOPHNRCSE president Carlos Suarez have been selected for the Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program.

Such leadership positions require the same kind of thoughtful preparation. What are you doing to prepare yourself for increasing responsibility? Training conferences like this one really help in that endeavor, as do tours of duty and details at National Headquarters to get the “big picture.” I strongly encourage you to consider a detail or assignment in Washington. Ask Rosendo Trevino, who recently agreed to serve as Acting Director for Conservation Planning and Technical Assistance, why he thought coming to D.C. was a good idea.

You can also develop and demonstrate your leadership ability by volunteering for special teams, like the one Carl is on, or even interesting short-term projects. I am sure Luis Hernandez, who served as program chairman for this impressive event, will tell you he learned a lot and met many new people pulling all of this together so successfully.

You can also build leadership skills by serving on a committee or as an officer in NOPHNRCSE. Carlos [Suarez] would no doubt be glad to hear from any of you who want to run next time around!

We also have a responsibility to prepare the next generation of leaders. As a mentor, supervisor, or team leader, ensure the new/junior personnel get to boot camp. A really hard-working national team led by Chris Tippie just reviewed the entire course from top to bottom and revised the curriculum to ensure it delivers required basic natural resources and planning skills. There is also follow-on training for personnel after they return to their home office.

You should also introduce junior personnel into your networks and encourage them to take special assignments like those I just discussed.

I know that helping the agency in the recruitment of qualified Hispanics is a purpose and goal of yours; it is certainly a priority of mine, and I am grateful for your leadership in this effort.

In summary, finding ways to meet new and existing challenges, making conservation easier for our customers and striving for increased accountability all contribute to the same end: providing solid, “citizen-centered” technical assistance to put conservation on the land.

Clean air, clean water, productive soils, healthy plant and animal communities, an adequate energy supply, and working lands and farms matter to all Americans. Take time to take pride in the countless contributions your expertise and dedication make to communities all across the nation.

In your daily work and commitment to helping people help the land, you are living proof of the good sense behind the maxim: “The end of all knowledge should surely be service to others.”

Thank you again for including me in your annual conference and thank you for all you do for our agency and our country.


I’m happy to take any questions you may have….