NRCS and NWTF Turn the Corner on First Five Years of National Forestry Initiative & Look Toward Next Five years with NFI 2.0
NRCS and NWTF Turn the Corner on First Five Years of National Forestry Initiative & Look Toward Next Five years with NFI 2.0
September 2023 marked a five-year milestone for the National Forestry Initiative (NFI), a partnership between USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF). Aimed at promoting forest health and habitat conservation on private lands across the county, the original agreement has accomplished much in its first five years – in fact, through the dedicated work of 24 forester positions in 23 states, the partnership has led to the implementation of conservation practices on more than 333,000 acres.
The initial NFI agreement was established in 2017 after the NWTF annual convention in Nashville, TN. Kurt Simon, former NRCS-NWTF liaison, Leonard Jordan, former Acting NRCS Chief, and Becky Humphreys, former NWTF CEO, sat and strategized opportunities for NRCS to increase forestry capacity within the Agency as well as conservation planning on private lands. As a result, the NFI agreement was developed.
Other NRCS staff instrumental in the success of the initial NFI agreement include Galon Hall, former Working Lands for Wildlife coordinator and Chris Wolkonowski, former NRCS-NWTF liaison. Hall and Wolkonowski assisted in streamlining the NFI agreement by implementing an umbrella concept. The umbrella concept afforded the consolidation of several state level agreements into one, allowing NWTF to work with NRCS in multiple states using one NWTF forestry coordinator and one NRCS liaison. The concept was unique for the partnership and has worked quite well.
“It’s really important for us to come together from the standpoint of partnerships,” shares Mark Hatfield, NWTF National Director of Conservation Services. “Our work as an organization is complementary to NRCS’s efforts: to implement private land forestry and conservation on the ground.” Founded in 1973, the NWTF has since positively impacted over 22 million acres with their conservation work. “We don’t accomplish anything alone anymore – our 22 million acres we’ve been able to accomplish, we’ve never done one of those acres alone. Our goal is to always be better partners and that’s why we’re here.”
Due to the success of the first NFI agreement, the two partners created NFI 2.0, another five-year agreement in 2022. This agreement will further the work of conservation on private lands through September 2027. The creation of the new agreement allows NRCS to contribute an additional $5.3 million over the lifetime of the agreement to bolster forestry capacity and technical expertise across the country. NFI foresters, who work out of local NRCS offices, work one-on-one with private landowners, and provide a range of integral services: technical assistance, site visits, helping with NRCS program application process, creating forest management plans, following NRCS specifications, monitoring practices, and conducting education and outreach efforts.
Additionally, NFI 2.0 expands the reach of the partnership with the creation of a forester position for underserved counties in Alabama, while also increasing the number of forester positions to 31 in 27 states across the country.