Kansas NRCS Goes Mobile

Enhancing NRCS customer service is the concept behind the new “mobile” field office, a Kansas pilot project that enables NRCS employees to use technology and scientific information in helping landowners voluntarily address resource concerns and meet conservation goals for their land.

In the fall of 2006, Kansas NRCS State Conservationist Harold Klaege decided it was time to free employees from their brick-and-mortar buildings and allow them to do more conservation planning from the grasslands and croplands of Kansas — where it should be done.  "Today, with the latest portable equipment at their fingertips, such as laptop computers, Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, printers, and cell phones, NRCS field staff can meet with a farmer or rancher on their land and develop a conservation plan on-site," said Klaege.

NRCS rangeland management specialist Chris Tecklenburg is just one of 15 Kansas NRCS employees who are participating in this Statewide pilot project.  His equipment consists of a truck equipped with a portable computer tablet, printer, scanner, laptop, GIS, and Global Positioning System (GPS).

Tecklenburg is now able to provide immediate access to natural resource data, such as soils, range sites, aerial photography maps, and Field Office Technical Guide (FOTG) information to help develop a conservation plan and identify appropriate conservation practices on-site for producers like Derek Zongker who lives 40 miles from his local NRCS office.  “Anytime you’re able to go out on the ground and actually see what it is you’re talking about, it is a good thing,” said Zongker who has worked with NRCS to address resource concerns on his grazing land for the last seven years.

Learn more about NRCS in Kansas.

Now, Tecklenburg can gather Zongker’s necessary rangeland information and use the technology in order to create a plan in the field.  Once this information is gathered, it is transferred into GIS.  “I can create a grazing plan, print it, and give it to him right then,” explains Tecklenburg.  Time is a valuable commodity for Tecklenburg.  “It makes sense to do everything right here in the field that way I can focus on the customer.  Back at the office, interruptions are inevitable and it’s sometimes hard to stay focused on a single job for any period of time.”

Zongker participates in the NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to receive cost-share assistance on practices like a watering system, interior fences, and incentive payments to do rotational grazing.  He attributes his one-on-one discussions (in the field) for the successful development of his grazing plan to fit his operation.

Other “mobile” locations in Kansas include Colby, Gove, Stockton, Ness City, Dodge City, Ulysses, Belleville, Kingman, Oskaloosa, Marion, Eureka, and El Dorado.
Your contact is Mary Schaffer, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 785-823-4571.