APIO and NRCS: Leading Change for Conservation

Remarks prepared for delivery by Arlen L. Lancaster, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, to the Ninth Annual Asian Pacific Islander Organization (APIO) Training Conference

Miami, Florida
August 21, 2007

Good morning. It is nice to be back in Florida. I was in Tampa at the end of July for the Soil and Water Conservation Society annual conference, where I also had the chance to sit down with our employees to hear what was on their minds. Hearing from our folks who are getting conservation on the ground is one of my favorite things to do when I travel; a close second, though, is seeing the product of that work out in the field. During SWCS, Niles [Glasgow] showed me some great projects up north and I am really looking forward to seeing more when we go to the Everglades later today.

In reviewing your agenda for the week, I was quite impressed by both the breadth and depth of the speakers, panels and training sessions you have scheduled. You may have heard through the grapevine that I am not a big fan of meetings, but I understand the value in a gathering like this one to promote professional development and information exchange, and I appreciate being invited to take part in it. I also commend you for making time to attend because I know how easy it is to let other responsibilities overwhelm opportunities like this.

Your conference theme, “Pursuing Excellence through Leadership, Diversity, and Unity,” does such a good job capturing what this organization is all about that you could use it every year. In fact, it captures what I think NRCS is all about, too: harnessing the technical expertise, dedication, and ability of every employee to work collaboratively with our diverse customer base and other partners to put conservation on the ground.

I have established three priorities as chief to ensure we can continue to deliver on the promise of our mission to help people help the land. These priorities are: ensuring we are prepared to meet future challenges, making conservation easier, and increasing transparency and accountability. As I share my thoughts about each of these priorities, I think you will see how leadership, diversity and unity directly support them.

Preparing to Meet Future Challenges

Based on past performance, we have much to be proud of as an agency. But, we cannot rest on our laurels—especially not now, when conservation and the environment have become daily topics in our national conversation and so many opportunities are laid before us. That is why my first priority is aimed at preparing ourselves as individuals, as an agency and as members of the larger conservation community to meet future challenges. I also want to ensure we are poised to take full advantage of the current momentum for positive change in how Americans think about and care for the land.

For instance, our customer base is changing rapidly. The 2002 Census of Agriculture is really revealing in this regard. From 1997 to 2002, the number of principal operators increased by 8.6 percent for African Americans, 20 percent for American Indians/Alaska Natives, 13.4 percent for women, and an extraordinary 51.2 percent for Hispanic/Latino operators. While the number of Asian/Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian principal operators appears to have decreased slightly overall, it has grown dramatically in some states. Pooh [Vongkhamdy] rightly mentioned to me that the involvement in our programs by Asian-Pacific Islander producers in on the increase in many places, such as Minnesota, California, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Wisconsin.

But, there is more to do. Some of our existing delivery methods may not work as well as they have in the past. We must find new ways to serve traditionally underserved communities. I consider conservation districts a critical partner in this effort at the local level and I also look to you in APIO for continued help in building the bridges we must cross to reach all those who have a need for our programs.

What applies to underserved communities is true for beginning farmers and ranchers, as well. They need your outreach and technical assistance to establish and maintain good conservation practices from the outset; as a result, we will all benefit from cleaner air and water and more productive soils.

We have some work to do, though, to ensure our workforce has the diversity and technical expertise required for the future. To begin with, nearly 80 percent of personnel in mission-critical occupation areas are eligible to retire by 2010. These are our core technical experts, so we face potentially significant gaps in leadership and technical assistance capability due to this retirement “bubble”.

Second, when you compare NRCS with the population, I know we can do more to make our agency look like the rest of America. We took a good hard look at this in our recent human capital strategic planning process. If you have not had a chance to review the final plan yet, it is worth your time to do so.

I genuinely believe that diversity in all its forms strengthens the agency. I know you believe that, too, and I thank you in APIO for your leadership in recruiting, training and retaining the workforce we need to get our many jobs done.

I said earlier that we need to prepare ourselves as an agency and as individuals, so let me ask you: What are you doing to keep your skills current? When was the last time you updated your Individual Development Plan? There are many ways for you to refresh outmoded skills or acquire new ones, through distance learning, our partnering colleges and universities, graduate programs, formal training and even detail assignments.

Do you consider yourself mobile, ready to serve where the agency needs your skills and strengths, or have you settled in for the duration? How many of you have National Headquarters in your future plans? I feel that anyone who aspires to leadership in our organization or to gaining a fuller understanding of how decisions are made, where our budget comes from, or even how all the pieces of USDA fit together will want to make D.C. a milestone on his or her career path.

Together, we have a responsibility to prepare the next generation of NRCS leaders. As a mentor, supervisor, or team leader, make it a point to get the new/junior personnel to boot camp. A really hard-working national team led by Chris Tippie just reviewed the entire course from top to bottom and revised the curriculum to ensure it delivers required basic natural resources and planning skills. You can also introduce other people into your networks and encourage them to take special assignments or to serve as APIO officers or on various committees. I am sure Pooh would be grateful for that kind of interest.

Not all of you may feel that you are in leadership positions, but you can all be resources, mentors and role models. As eloquently summed up by our sixth president, John Quincy Adams, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

Some have made mention of the fact that I am the first Asian-American Chief of the agency. It is something I am very proud of. I have tremendous respect for my heritage and my family. My father is Caucasian and from Idaho. My mother is Taiwanese from Tai Chung, Taiwan. However, I was born in Japan at Misawa Air Force Base. Because of that, I joke that I was “Made in Taiwan” but born in Japan.

Balancing my white part with my Taiwanese part has not always been easy. When I was young, I was embarrassed by my Taiwanese side. When I was little, I would revert to Chinese whenever I got upset or excited and kids would make fun of me. So, I simply stopped speaking Chinese—one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

I now know that my mother went along with it out of insecurity over her own English and a mother’s interest in seeing her child fit in. I look back at that with regret and also regret the times I was embarrassed by my mother. I was embarrassed by her English, at times her traditions, and every time we walked into a store and she would attempt to bargain. Have you ever tried that at Sears?

But, as I got older, and hopefully wiser, I realized I had nothing to be embarrassed by. My mother overcame many obstacles and sacrificed to help integrate our mixed family into society. My mother inspired my work ethic, my dedication to family, and my awareness of others. She taught me a respect for cultures, history, and for myself. She also taught me to meet adversity head-on, and with a smile.

I know she faced obstacles in the work place and in society, but she always focused on doing her best, staying positive, and never letting the cuts show. She was a leader without knowing how much she impacted those around her.

Today, I am proud that my heritage has broadened my view of the world. I truly believe it has made a positive difference in how I see things and in what I contribute to society. It has given me the tools to be a better leader and meet any challenge I am faced with.

My mother is retired now, but she is still as active as ever. She leads her community association’s “welcome to the neighborhood” efforts. She teaches Pilates and water aerobics at the senior center. She is still a leader and a positive influence on those around her and she still makes my life easier.

Making Conservation Easier

Which leads me to my second priority, although first in my heart—that of making conservation easier. When I say “making conservation easier,” I mean making it easier for our customers and for our employees. I want to be sure you have better tools and time to get out of the office more, so we are studying ways to reduce your administrative burdens, eliminate redundant procedures and streamline processes. Ideally, I would like for you to be able to spend as much as 70 percent of your time in the field, providing the one-on-one technical assistance that our reputation is built on.

For our customers, I mean reducing the complexity of our programs, to make them easier and more accessibly, as our Farm Bill proposals recommend, along with reducing the number of individual programs and acronyms, the differing and opaque eligibility requirements and everything else that makes customers say “This is too hard!” Two-thirds of the land in this country is in private hands and participation in our programs is entirely voluntary. So, if we are going to have a real and lasting impact on the land and make every acre count for conservation, we have to make it easier for eligible landowners to take advantage of our programs.

As long as I am quoting early Americans this morning, let me quote another one here. These words are from George Washington, who said: “I am sure the mass of citizens in these United States mean well, and I firmly believe they will always act well, whenever they can obtain a right understanding of matters.”

I truly believe in the willingness of our fellow citizens to do the right thing when they have solid information to act on. We should design structures, plans and programs to support their needs, not ours, and we have to look at our policies and procedures with an eye to how user friendly they are. And, we must continue to focus on core mission areas—conservation planning and technical assistance—to help farmers and ranchers make good decisions for the land.

After a year as chief, I am more convinced than ever that if you give landowners the tools, they will implement conservation. They want to do right by the environment and right by future generations, including their own children and grandchildren.

Accounting for the Benefits of Conservation

And that brings me to my third priority, which is accounting for the benefits of all these good conservation decisions. By being able to demonstrate the impacts of past conservation actions, as well as the likely impacts of future ones, we can enhance our credibility and retain the trust we have worked so hard to earn.

The Conservation Effects Assessment Project, or CEAP, is designed to help us do that; we have made a lot of progress during the program’s first five years and I am currently reviewing the steering committee’s vision for the next five. We are closing in on producing results from the cropland component. In about 18 months, for the first time other than with soil erosion, we will be able to measure the effect of our work—your work—in a way that is really meaningful to Congress, our customers, planners and the public.

This kind of information and data will strengthen our case for continued conservation funding in future farm bills and will also go a long way towards gaining overdue recognition for the dedicated conservation efforts of farmers and ranchers.

Since I mentioned the Farm Bill, let me quickly touch on that. We currently have a version of the 2007 bill from the House and we expect the Senate to take it up by mid-September. Many of you have been through this process before and you know that there will be a lot of fits and starts. In other words, it’s not over until it’s over, so I caution you not to get too invested in any of the interim versions.

The main provisions in the Secretary’s Farm Bill proposals have a lot of synergy with the NRCS priorities I outlined. The proposals would increase conservation funding by $7.8 billion over 10 years; simplify and consolidate programs, for us and our customers; support emerging priorities, such as renewable energy research; and provide direct benefits to beginning farmers and ranchers and socially disadvantaged producers. In fact, our proposal is for 10 percent of Farm Bill conservation funding to be dedicated to these producers to better level the playing field.

Our proposals are reform minded, for programs that are merit based and market oriented to enable us to meet future challenges, to make conservation easier and to be more transparent in our business practices.

Whatever happens ultimately with the farm bill, it is critical for us to keep service, conservation planning and other essential activities front and center. If we remain focused on our core missions—with your leadership and technical expertise—I am convinced we will make progress for conservation every day, regardless of unforeseen changes in funding, personnel, or policy.

And in Conclusion

I want to conclude today with a “thank you.” You do not hear it often enough, probably because I don’t say it enough, but thank you for all you do to get conservation on the ground. NRCS is stronger because of APIO, your commitment to professionalism and your commitment to our customers.

Thank you for inviting me to be part of this important conference. I am happy to take some questions, if there is time….

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