Importance of Conservation Technical Assistance

America's Private Land

Agriculture and the quality of America's soil and water resources are vital to the Nation's welfare. Over 70 percent (1.5 billion acres) of the United States is non-Federal land. Almost 90 percent of these acres are cropland, rangeland, pastureland, and private non-industrial forestland. Millions of individuals care for these lands. NRCS partners with private land managers (including farmers and ranchers), conservation districts, State and local conservation agencies, tribal governments, rural communities, businesses, and others to get conservation on the land that helps to conserve the landscape, increase agricultural productivity, improve the environment, and strengthen the quality of life.

Soil Conservation Act

The importance and health of America's private land is critical to the health of our Nation. In 1935, this Nation made an historic commitment to the stewardship of private land in the Soil Conservation Act. This Act, passed in the depths of the Dust Bowl, recognized that the long-term welfare of all Americans rested in the hands of farmers and ranchers.

Agriculture Production

Our country's economic and environmental well being depends on maintaining the health of privately owned land, the "working land". America's agricultural production is the envy of the world. Capturing the advantages of fertile soils and favorable climate, our farmers and ranchers produce a safe an affordable supply of food and fiber. Our farmers and ranchers produce traditional commodities for the marketplace: corn, soybeans, oats, hay, milk, beef, mutton, wool, fruits, vegetables, Christmas trees, lumber, and many other commodities across the country, and they are exceeding good at doing so.

Today, each acre of cropland produces nearly three times what was produced on the same acre in 1935, enabling one farmer to produce enough food for 129 people. This dramatic productivity increase has made food prices lower for Americans than they are for citizens of any other industrial country. But our nation's farms and ranches produce far more that these traditional commodities. Well-managed agricultural land also produces healthy soil, clean air and water, wildlife habitat, and pleasing landscapes, all of which are increasingly valued by rural and urban citizens alike. With a broader understanding of land, our Nation's farms, ranches, and private forest can and do serve the multiple functions that all other life and we depend upon.

Water and Wildlife

Through their care and stewardship of the land, farmers and ranchers produce safe drinking water, clear-flowing streams, lakes full of fish, skies full of ducks and geese, and scenic landscapes. About 88 percent of the rain and snow that falls each year on the United States falls onto private land before it flows into lakes and streams and underground aquifers. Private land conservation practices improve water quality, and these farmers and ranchers also provide 75 percent of nature’s wildlife the food and shelter they need to survive.

Values

We do not buy these commodities in our supermarkets, and their prices are not listed on the Chicago Board of Trade, but we value them just the same. It’s hard to estimate the importance of farms and ranches in producing these non-market environmental goods and services. What is the value of clean water, healthy wildlife populations and landscapes, and how important is it to have an affordable, dependable, and safe food supply?

Land and People

The continued dominance of agricultural land use, combined with the growth and dispersal of people into suburban and rural areas, means that the quality of the Nation's environment and the sustained productivity of the land depends more than ever on how people relate to the land. How America's farmers and ranchers use and manage their land is the key to producing the nontraditional agricultural commodities that people value and to maintaining healthy, stable landscapes and watersheds. Each owner's actions are important, not just because they affect that particular piece of land, but they also affect neighboring land and the health of the larger ecosystems and watershed in which they occur. Everybody is somebody's neighbor.

What happens on the land remains crucial to our economic and environmental well being, even if we never set foot on a farm or ranch. Our connection to the land is there every time we buy a loaf of bread, take a drink of water, or admire a flock of geese heading south in the fall. Many of us may have lost our connection to the land, but none of us have lost our dependency on private land. The truth is what happens on privately owned land has a profound effect on the rest of society.

Conservation Needs

Soil erosion continues to threaten the productive capacity of cropland. Water quality and quantity problems confront many communities, and we have grown more concerned about the loss of wildlife habitat and the conservation of biodiversity. The nation needs to make a firm commitment to share the burden of caring for private land.

Applying Conservation

Healthy working land is the foundation of a prosperous U.S. agricultural industry and the corner stone of environmental quality and the core of healthy communities. Healthy working land doesn't just happen. It takes hard work, sound conservation practices and the voluntary conservation network built through conservation districts with NRCS, State conservation agencies, and millions of private landowners.

Growth and prosperity in the non-agricultural sectors of the economy have been dominant forces in expansion of developed areas with significant impacts to our nation's natural resources. Many of today's landowners do not have the traditional agricultural backgrounds and need conservation technical assistance to help them become stewards of the land.

NRCS provides conservation technical assistance to landowners to assist in the development of conservation plans that helps them understand their land and ensures that conservation practices are effective and workable for the landowner.

Public Benefits

In order to develop and implement conservation plans on private lands, NRCS provides conservation technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, and others who invest their time and money for enhanced environmental protection of their land and water. As a result, the public benefits from an overall improved quality of life, affordable food, cleaner, safer, and more dependable water supplies; reduced damages caused by floods and other natural disasters, abundant wildlife, scenic landscapes and an enhanced natural resource base to support continued economic development and recreation.

Future Challenges

The conservation agenda continues to expand as a result of greater scientific understanding as well as an increasing number of Federal, State, and local laws and policy actions on environmental quality, place new requirements on landowners and land-users.

This increased demand for CTA has created the need for the agency to foster new technologies and conservation practices to address emerging challenges. These challenges include nutrient management for animal feeding operations, the establishment of wildlife habitat to address declining populations of fish and wildlife, and the design of conservation systems to lessen or alleviate the impact of climatic events (floods, droughts, wildfires, & etc.).

Conservation Planning

Most technical assistance provided by NRCS is based on the voluntary development of a conservation farm or ranch plan - a resource assessment of the farm or ranch that allows landowners or managers to determine the opportunities for using the resources under their care and how they may achieve their goals. A successful plan helps the individual landowner achieve his or her business and personal objectives while, at the same time, meet his or her responsibility to care for the land. NRCS works to assist each landowner achieve a sustainable system that contributes to healthy bottom lines as well as healthy ecosystems, landscapes, and watersheds.

The purpose of conservation technical assistance is to sustain agricultural productivity and protect and enhance the natural resource base. This assistance is based on voluntary local landowner cooperation and recognizes the value of educational, technical, and financial assistance to respond to individual needs and nationally determined priorities.

Future Sustainability

When viewed from the ground up, the challenge is to devise and carry out local actions adapted to specific economic, environmental, and social conditions that, when woven together, create healthy farms and ranches and combine to create healthy ecosystems, watersheds, and communities. Such healthy components are the building blocks of a sustainable society.

The national commitment to private land stewardship rests in the hands of millions of individuals, most of who are inclined to do the right thing. The knowledge, creativity, skill, and commitment to conservation of each landowner determine whether most of America's land is healthy. From a national perspective, then, our land will be healthy not because of broad public policies and programs but because each landowner will make his or her own individual place healthy.

Investing in the Future

Each day, this Nation benefits from the strong commitment to private land conservation that results in sustainable farmland and communities, cleaner water, healthy wildlife, and tranquil landscapes. Conservation offers an enduring and trusted remedy for many of the challenges ahead. A sustainable society requires a sustainable environment. One depends on the other.

Our nation faces a challenge that will become increasingly important in this millennium. The next great environmental goal is conserving our private land that benefits every one of us. To achieve this goal, we must accept stewardship on private land as a shared responsibility between public and private interests. The public funds we spend for private land conservation is one of our government's wisest investments, achieving multiple conservation benefits from modest expenditures for conservation technical assistance.

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