Department Approves NRCS Reorganization - The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) National Headquarters reorganization has been approved by the Department of Agriculture. The goal of the reorganization is to realign and restructure the current National Headquarters organization to better serve NRCS customers. In order to accomplish this goal, the reorganization will:

• Establish a new Deputy Chief for Strategic Planning and Accountability (SP&A); which is responsible for strategic planning, performance measurement, accountability, workload analysis, operations management, and budget formulation.
• Establish a new Strategic and Performance Planning Division under the Deputy for SP&A and the Operations Management and Oversight Division transfers to the new Deputy for SP&A.
• Transfer the Budget Planning and Analysis Division and the functions of workload analysis to the new Deputy for SP&A.
• Realign the Civil Rights Employment Division and Civil Rights Program Compliance Division into a new Civil Rights Staff reporting to the Office of the Chief.
• Merge the Resource Conservation and Development Division and Community Assistance and Rural Development Division into Resource Conservation and Community Development Division under the Deputy Chief for Programs.
• Establish a new Animal Husbandry and Clean Water Programs Division under the Deputy Chief for Programs.
• Change the USDA Program Outreach Division to NRCS Outreach Division and move it to the Deputy Chief for Management.
• Abolish the Institutes Division under the Deputy Chief for Science and Technology and transfer the supervisory functions to the applicable division director.
• Change the Resource Assessment and Strategic Planning Division to Resource Assessment Division under the Deputy Chief for Soil Survey and Resource Assessment due to the transfer of the strategic planning function to the new SP&A Deputy area.

Clean Water Action Plan (CWAP) and Animal Feeding Operations Presentations - Presentations on the Clean Water Action Plan and the recently released USDA-EPA Unified National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations will be made at the National Conference of State Resource Conservationists and State Conservation Engineers, October 5-9, in Reno, NV. This will be an opportunity for State technical leadership to become more informed and engaged to a greater extent in the actions in the plan and the solicitation of public comments for the draft strategy.

NRCS Civil Rights Video Available - A video highlighting NRCS program outreach efforts to underserved customers is now available. "Conservation Through Inclusion: The NRCS Civil Rights Charge" also explains the operations of the NRCS National Civil Rights Committee, which addresses civil rights issues throughout NRCS. The video will be distributed to NRCS offices nationwide during October. Additional copies are available from the NRCS National Employee Development Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Contact Chris Larson at NEDC, fax: 817-509-3271 or e-mail: clarson@ftw.nrcs.usda.gov.

Kudos For Field Data Collectors for the 1997 Foundation National Resources Inventory - The Resources Inventory Division recently announced that the 1997 Foundation National Resources Inventory (NRI) data collection phase is nearly completed. This is a major milestone in delivering the 1997 Foundation NRI on-time for use by analysts and policy makers. This success could not have bee accomplished without the dedication of the NRCS data collectors at the State office and field levels.

IN THE FIELD

Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWP) Update:

Indiana: NRCS has identified storm and tornado-damaged sites in Owen, Henry, and Hancock counties that need assistance from the EWP program. NRCS allocated $225,000 to remove debris from streams that jeopardize lives and property.

New York: More than $1 million was funded through EWP program to assist communities in western New York flooded by storms in June and July. Nine counties will receive funds for the removal of debris from stream channels, culverts, and bridge abutments.

Ohio: In Athens County, NRCS identified more than $1 million in EWP work because of damages caused by floods. NRCS is providing technical assistance to the county and its townships for damage repair. Landowners in several communities are considering voluntary mitigation buyouts of their property.

Wisconsin: Damage caused by storms along the east and west branches of the Milwaukee River in Fond du Lac County is being assessed and repaired under EWP program. NRCS is providing $67,000 in emergency funds to clear debris from the river channel and remove the threat of further damage to the watershed.

NRCS EQIP Project To Protect and Conserve Water in Kansas - A $1.3 million Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) water conservation project is underway in Sedgwick, Reno, McPherson, and Harvey counties. The goal of the project is to conserve 18 billion gallons over 5 years and improve water quantity by 74 billion gallons over 20 years. Through EQIP and NRCS efforts, irrigation will be more efficient, wetlands maintained and improved, and ground water near livestock areas protected. The water source is used by more than 500,000 people in south-central Kansas.

CONSTITUENCY AND PARTNERSHIP NEWS

Sign the Earth Day Pledge - At the April 22 Earth Day celebration, "Agriculture and the Environment: A Growing Partnership." Secretary Glickman thanked the agricultural community for its public rededication to conserving and protecting the more than 1 billion acres of land used for producing food and natural fiber in the United States. That same day, the Secretary, Chief Pearlie Reed and over 35 agricultural organizations became inaugural signatories on the following Earth Day Conservation Pledge. We invite all "NRCS This Week" readers to join the Chief and the Secretary by also signing this pledge. Those individuals and organizations that wish to support the environmental efforts of America's farmers and ranchers by signing the pledge may do so by completing the form below and mailing or faxing it to the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. Names will be collected over the next year and publicly presented on Earth Day 1999.

We, the undersigned:

- Celebrate the bountiful natural resources of our nation - clean air, clean water, healthy soil, abundant wildlife, and a quality environment;

 

- Honor America's farmers, ranchers, and their families for their growing partnerships with the Earth in striving to conserve our natural resources and provide the world with an abundant, reliable, and affordable supply of food, natural fiber, horticultural, and other agricultural products;

 

- Recognize that nature ensures American agriculture's conservation task is never complete, and that important environmental challenges lie before us; and

 

- Hereby rededicate ourselves to building on conservation successes and developing innovative efforts that will contribute to clean water and air, healthy soil, improved wildlife habitat and open spaces, and a quality environment for all. For more information about this initiative, visit www.nasda-hq.org.

Individual (Please Print):	Name as to appear on Pledge:
Town/State:	Ag Occupation:
Organization (Please Print):	Name as to appear on Pledge:
Your Name (Authorization):	Address (Optional):
Phone:	City:
Fax:	State:
E-Mail:	Zip Code:

Please indicate if you are signing this pledge as an individual, organization, or both.

FAX: 202-626-8899

 

MAIL: National Council of Farmer Cooperatives

ATTN: Earth Day Pledge

50 F St., N.W. Suite 900

Washington, D.C. 20001

LEGISLATIVE NEWS

The following bills of significance to NRCS and conservation were recently introduced:

H.R. 4356 by English (Pennsylvania) -- The legislation would amend the Surface Mining Control Act of 1977 to assure that the full amount deposited in the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund is spent for the purposes for which it was established.

H.R. 4407 by Herger (California) -- The legislation is the Biomass Equity Act of 1998. It provides tax credits for electricity produced from biomass.

H.R. 4409 by Lucas (Oklahoma) -- The legislation would amend the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to provide cost-share assistance for the rehabilitation of structural measures constructed as part of the water resource projects previously funded under such Acts or related laws.

Senate Agriculture Relief Act Rejected - On September 14, the Senate moved to table or kill an amendment, offered by Senator Tom Harkin (Iowa) to the Interior Appropriations Bill, which contained a multi-billion dollar package for assisting farmers who are in crisis because of natural conditions or low prices. The amendment focused upon marketing assistance loans, emergency storage payments, reserve inventories, and a provision dealing with meat labeling. Members of Congress and the Administration have stated that additional emergency farm aid packages will be considered before the 105th Congress adjourns.

Conference on Agriculture Appropriations - On September 23, conferees from the House and Senate met to resolve differences between both Chambers' passed versions of H.R. 4101, the Agriculture Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 1999.

Flood Prevention Measures - On October 2, the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee (Chairman Goodlatte, Virginia) will hold a hearing to discuss H.R. 4128, a bill to amend the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act to ensure that States and local governments can quickly and safely remove flood debris to reduce the risk and severity of subsequent flooding.

SUBSCRIBE TO "NRCS THIS WEEK"

Receive "NRCS This Week" by E-mail - You can receive "NRCS This Week" by e-mail the minute it's cleared. To get on the NRCS THIS WEEK mailing list, send an e-mail to: listproc@nrcs.usda.gov. Do not use a subject line and put the following in the body of the message: subscribe NRCS-THIS-WEEK Firstname Lastname (example: subscribe NRCS-THIS-WEEK Fred Jacobs). To get help with other commands that are available at the "listproc@nrcs.usda.gov" address, send a message with no subject and the word HELP on a line by itself in the body of the message. "NRCS This Week" will continue to be posted on the NRCS Homepage.

UPCOMING

September 15-October 15 - The theme of this year's Hispanic Heritage Month is "Women in Leadership."

September 27-29 - (Kansas) NACD Agricultural Lands Resources Committee Meeting to be held at the Holiday Inn in Topeka, KS. For more information, contact Bill Horvath at 715-341-1022; fax: 715-341-1023.

September 27-30 - (South Dakota) Thorne Ecological Institute hosts "Peaks to Prairies: A Conference on Watershed Stewardship, Sustaining Communities and the Environment" at the Rushmore Plaza, Holiday Inn, Rapid City, SD. For more information, call 303-499-3647; fax: 303-499-8340; or e-mail: dir@thorneecoinst.org.

October 4-7 - (Minnesota) North American Conference on Enterprise Development Through Agroforestry: Farming the Agroforest for Specialty Products will be held at the Doubletree Park Place Hotel, in Minneapolis, MN. For more information, contact Scott Josiah at 612-624-7418; fax: 612-625-5212; or e-mail: CINRAM@forestry.umn.edu.

October 11-14 - (Nevada) The Association of Dam Safety Officials will host "Dam Safety '98," Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, NV. For more information, call 606-257-5140; fax: 606-323-1958; or e-mail: damsafety@aol.com.

October 19 - (Maryland) 1998 Annual Meeting of the Soil Science Society of America will feature a Symposium on Carbon Sequestration in Soils to be held at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information, contact Julie Jastrow; e-mail: jdjastrow@anl.gov, or Dale Johnson; e-mail: dwj@dri.edu.

October 24-28 - (Minnesota) NACD Fall Executive Board Members Meeting to be held at the Radisson Inn in Bloomington, MN. For more information, contact Robert Raschke at 303-988-1810; fax: 303-988-1896.

November 6-8 - (South Carolina) The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) will host the 13th Annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference, "New Directions for Sustaining Agriculture," at the Clemson University Madren Center, Clemson, SC. For more information call: 919-542-2404; fax: 919-542-7401; e-mail: cfsa@intrex.net; or visit CFSA's website at: http://sunsite.unc.edu/cfsa/index.htm.

November 10-13 - (China) ETC/Environmental Technology China will present "The 4th International Exhibition on Environmental Protection, Pollution Control, and Green Production Technology," China International Exhibition Centre, Beijing, P.R., China. For more information, contact Rebecca Fung at 852-25163346; fax: 852-25165024; or e-mail: aes@adsaleexh.com.

November 16-19 - (Alabama) The American Water Resources Association (AWRA) is sponsoring its annual Conference at the Marriott Grande Hotel in Point Clear, AL. For more information, call the AWRA at 703-904-1225.

November 17-20 - (Nevada) The National Organization of Professional Asian Pacific American NRCS Employees is sponsoring its first annual training conference in Sparks, NV. Poster and technical papers are being solicited. Deadline to submit topic and general outline is October 30. Poster papers cannot exceed an area of a 4' x 8' board or table top display. For more information on poster papers, contact Kent Matsutani at 308-254-4507; or email: wmatsuta@ne.nrcs.usda.gov. For general information on the conference, contact Mon Yee at 503-414-3264; e-mail: myee@or.nrcs.usda.gov; or Virginia C. Lewis at 505-761-4408; e-mail: vlewis@nm.nrcs.usda.gov.

December 8-12 - (Arkansas) 7th Annual Training Conference of the National Organization of Professional Black Natural Resources Conservation Service Employees, "Bridging the Gap to the New Millennium," will be held at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock, AR. For more information, contact Jackie Roscoe at 202-720-5235; fax: 202-720-5548.

January 19-21, 1999 - (Illinois) Soil and Water Conservation Society will host a National conference, "The State of North America's Private Land," at the Holiday Inn O'Hare in Chicago, IL. For more information, contact Charlie Persinger at 515-289-2331; fax: 515-289-1227; or e-mail: swcs@swcs.org.

January 24-27, 1999 - (Colorado) Colorado State University will host "Tailings and Mine Waste '99" in Ft. Collins, CO. The conference will provide a forum for presenting information on mill tailings, mine waste, and current and future issues facing the mining and environmental communities. Contact Linda L. Hinshaw at 970-491-6081; fax: 970-491-3584; or e-mail: lhinshaw@engr.colostate.edu.

January 31-February 4, 1999 - (California) 53rd NACD Annual Meeting to held at the Town and Country Resort and Conference Center (1-800-772-8528) in San Diego, CA. For more information, contact Robert Raschke at 303-988-1810; fax: 303-988-1896.

February 17-20, 1999 - (Texas) Land Improvement Contractors of America Winter Convention, Adams Mark Hotel, San Antonio, TX. Contact Wayne F. Maresch at 301-248-5749; fax: 301/248-0847; or email: WayneF86@aol.com.

May 23-28, 1999 - (Indiana) The International Soil Conservation Organization will host the 10th International Soil Conservation Conference, "Sustaining the Global Farm," at Purdue University in West LaFayette, IN. For more information, call 765-494-8683; fax: 765-494-5948 c/o ISCO99; e-mail: isco99@ecn.purdue.edu; or visit the conference website at: http://spc3.ecn.purdue.edu/isco99/isco99.htm.

QUOTE

"There is religion in everything around us,

A calm and holy religion

in the unbreathing things in Nature."

John Ruskin (1819-1900), English critic and essayist.

NRCS This Week is issued weekly by the Conservation Communications Staff, NRCS headquarters, Washington, D.C., and posted in the SCS:SCS shared folder on FTS2000Mail. Please send correspondence and material via FTS2000Mail to !A16SCSOPA and type "This Week" on the subject line or e-mail: fred.jacobs2@usda.gov or mail to Editor, "NRCS This Week," NRCS, P.O. Box 2890, Washington, DC 20013 or fax to Editor, "NRCS This Week," 202-690-1221.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD).

To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call 202-720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

< NRCS This Week Archives