Coon Creek: Celebrating 75 Years of Cooperative Conservation

Remarks prepared for delivery by Arlen L. Lancaster, Chief, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, at a ceremony celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Coon Creek Watershed Demonstration Project.
Village of Coon Valley, Wisconsin
April 25, 2008


INTRODUCTION
Thank you, Pat [Leavenworth]. Congressman Kind, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, and friends of conservation: good morning.

One of the great things about being Chief of NRCS is the opportunity it gives me to visit with farmers and ranchers all around the country, as we work together to achieve our shared vision for productive agricultural lands and a healthy environment. As you might imagine, I have seen some really inspiring projects and properties and have marveled at, and been grateful for, the network of partnerships that makes them possible.

Today, in every state in the union, producers are voluntarily implementing an impressive array of conservation practices on private working lands—practices that yield public benefits we all enjoy, in the forms of cleaner air, cleaner and more abundant water, improved soils and increased wildlife. And every single one of those landowners—whether in verdant Washington State, the Red Hill country of Mississippi, the wheat fields of Kansas, or the desert Southwest—has ties to the Coon Creek Watershed, and to the visionary farmers, bankers and public servants whose bold actions put this very special place on the map 75 years ago.

“PROJECT NO. 1” AND TODAY’S PRACTICES

For it was here that giants of conservation like Hugh Hammond Bennett, a distinguished soil scientist and our Agency’s founder, and Aldo Leopold, the father of wildlife management and the wilderness movement, came together with other dedicated scientists and citizens to change the course of American history.

Here, they began what Leopold referred to as an “adventure in cooperative conservation,” and what Bennett referred to simply as “Project No. 1.” However you refer to it, the work done under the Coon Creek Demonstration Project formed the basis of many conservation practices we still use, and continues to inform our modern stewardship ethic.

Approaches such as integrated, “whole farm” planning—including consideration of wildlife habitat—and locally led conservation were first adopted here. Also, the government’s role in private lands conservation—as provider of technical and financial assistance—was defined and refined as the project moved forward.

Two additional principles that grew out of the Coon Creek Demonstration Project remain central to how we do business today. The first of these principles is that our proposed conservation actions must be good for a producer’s bottom line, as well as the environment. The second is that they must be based on sound science.

Let me discuss the second principle first. It was no accident that this area near LaCrosse was chosen for Project No. 1, as an acquaintance of Bennett’s, Raymond Davis, was conducting important soil conservation research at the erosion experiment station there. Both Bennett and Davis believed the results of Davis’ research at the University of Wisconsin could be applied to restoring a watershed, and that lessons learned from the demonstration project would benefit other parts of the Midwest.

The Coon Creek Watershed was chosen from among several candidates, in part due to severe erosion on many of the farms in the area, and in part due to Davis’ sense that farmers here were ready to embrace the change needed to make a go of it. But Davis’ willingness to serve as the project’s regional director certainly also influenced the selection, as Bennett valued his judgment and expertise.

This strong relationship between the University of Wisconsin and Bennett’s fledgling Soil Erosion Service is one that endures today as NRCS and land grant universities nationwide work hand-in-hand to develop conservation practices, policies and procedures to meet unique regional needs. This collaboration ensures recommended practices are based on sound science, to make the best use of Agency and landowners’ resources, and to give participating producers confidence in their decision-making processes.

As the cadre of dedicated young scientists who crafted the Coon Creek Demonstration proved, if you give farmers and ranchers information that is timely, factual and site-specific, they will make the right decisions every time—for their businesses, their families, and the environment.

Which brings me back to the other important principle I mentioned: the idea that proposed conservation actions must also be good for the producer’s bottom line. In other words, good conservation must equal good economics. I have read that many farmers here in the area signed on to the demonstration project out of economic desperation and expected to return to their old methods of farming once their five-year contracts expired. Yet many of those original families are still operating according to the original demonstration plans, and they wouldn’t be doing so if production and profits hadn’t increased. It is worth keeping this principle in mind in 2008, and beyond, as we ask landowners to make complex decisions in a very dynamic marketplace.

LOOK HOW FAR WE’VE COME

We will not be celebrating NRCS’ 75th anniversary until 2010, which tells us that the Coon Creek Demonstration Project pre-dated our founding. In fact, data highlighting the project’s early successes were influential in the government’s decision to make the Soil Erosion Service a permanent entity in 1935, renamed the Soil Conservation Service, under Hugh Hammond Bennett’s direction. So, we in the Agency and all those who benefit from our services owe a debt of gratitude to those courageous early landowners who stepped forward to sign on the dotted line. Thanks to their initiative, Bennett was able to make the case for a national soil conservation effort.

It is remarkable to think how far we have come since then. We have forestalled another Dust Bowl. We have contributed to sustaining agriculture as a way of life while conserving resources important to all of us.

Adaptive management across watersheds and landscapes—an untested theory until Coon Creek and other related projects—has become the norm. And Leopold’s “adventure in cooperative conservation” goes on, as we partner with committed landowners and an ever-increasing list of federal, state, and local agencies. We also partner with non-governmental organizations like Trout Unlimited and Pheasants Forever to get conservation on the ground, which is what we consider to be the true measure of our success.

Joining with nearly 3,000 county-level soil and water conservation districts, NRCS now routinely provides conservation technical assistance to more than a million customers each year. Together, we have helped farmers and ranchers treat over 47 million acres of working lands to improve or enhance soil quality, water quality, water management, wildlife habitat, and air quality.

Our ranks are no longer supplemented by the Civilian Conservation Corps, whose workers installed so many terraces and so many miles of fencing here in Vernon, LaCrosse and Monroe Counties. But in 2007 alone, we were blessed with more than 70,000 individuals who volunteered over 1 million Earth Team hours to address local natural resources concerns, at a value of about $19 million. And we have expanded our ability to assist landowners by contracting for more than $230 million in additional technical services from certified providers since 2002.

That year’s Farm Bill increased funding for conservation by 80 percent, and our proposals for the 2007/2008 Farm Bill legislation continue to emphasize working lands conservation.

HERE IN COON VALLEY

Having focused on the demonstration project’s impacts on how we do business in NRCS even today, and on some of our accomplishments at the national level, I’d now like to spotlight what has happened here in Coon Valley and the environs in the 75 years since the CCC and your neighbors got down to work.

Of course, there are several speakers and guests with us this morning who are genuine experts on the watershed and its conditions, past and present, so I won’t attempt to steal their thunder. They say in public speaking that you should stick to what you know, and as I am an avid fly fisherman, I have been especially interested to learn of improved local stream flow resulting from improved farming practices that decrease runoff. By one account, there is about 10 percent more cold water flow now than in 1950. Since I know that more cold water flowing means more trout swimming—and hopefully, biting!—that’s very happy news indeed for me and the other anglers beating a path this area.

I don’t know how many of you saw a recent column in the Vernon County Broadcaster by Jay Thurston, with the headline “Soil, water equal great trout.” The piece talks about the early days of the Coon Creek Watershed Demonstration Project and its resulting benefits for local streams. In reading it, I was struck by his description of how pleasant it is to fish here. Let me read a bit of it to you:

“It’s not unusual to share the stream with a deer and fawn which came down for an early morning drink of cold water. In a trout stream valley you observe turkeys high on your left move slowly along the wood line. Up ahead, on your right, a pheasant crows from a clump of tall grass. And when you look up into the deep blue sky, you watch an eagle glide on a thin air current. It’s a peaceful country, where you are at ease and feel welcome, with miles of stream to wade and trout to catch.”

He goes on to say:

“Today, we have flowing in practically every valley a great stream…this story of quiet hydration, pure water, and great trout fishing, we celebrate every time we drink water from our own tap or catch trout. We are all stewards of the land and the water…A clear stream full of trout flowing within its banks is a sign of our success.”

Wonderfully said, isn’t it? The crystal clear streams, the undulating terraces, the restored forests in the watershed are all signs of your success, and a tribute to the vision of the pioneering scientists, the insightful financiers, and the farm families who were willing to take a risk in hopes of healing the land and sustaining their livelihoods here in southern Wisconsin. Together, they helped to change the course of American agriculture and sowed the seeds for a conservation movement that is perhaps only now coming into its full glory, three-quarters of a century later.

CONSERVATION NEVER ENDS

Aldo Leopold noted that “The oldest task in human history is to live on a piece of land without spoiling it,” and despite significant achievements over the past seven decades, we still have much to do. With two-thirds of U.S. lands in private hands, many opportunities to effect meaningful change are still before us. Within NRCS, we remain committed to working with our many partners and friends to make every acre count for conservation.

Norm Berg, a former Chief of our Agency who knew Hugh Hammond Bennett and also shared Aldo Leopold’s hometown of Burlington, Iowa, had this to say last fall about the way ahead:

“The reality today is that farming and ranching remain a risky business,
And what happens on the ground is largely up to the individual owners and managers of the nation’s cropland, pasture, rangeland, and forest land. Conservation gets done in an incremental way—from farm to farm and ranch to ranch. Our job is to get the people of this nation, particularly urban interests, to understand how farmers and ranchers contribute to the environmental well-being of us all.”

Every private landowner practicing conservation today follows in the footsteps of the farmers who participated in the Coon Creek Watershed Demonstration Project. Their legacy is one we can all take pride in and one we must all work to perpetuate, for the environmental well-being of us all.

Thank you for including me in today’s celebration, and congratulations to the community on this significant milestone.

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