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NRCS Planning Process and Support Structure
Remarks by Lawrence E. Clark, Deputy Chief for Science and Technology, Natural
Resources Conservation Service,
at the
World Summit on Sustainable Agriculture,
Loskop Aventura, South Africa, September 12, 2002
The United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation
Service, and its predecessor, the Soil Conservation Service, has been developing
conservation plans for farmers and ranchers for almost 70 years. In 1933, the
U.S. Congress created the Soil Erosion Service, predecessor to the Soil
Conservation Service. Its employees began working in demonstration projects on
selected watersheds. They worked directly with farmers. Ever since that time,
the basic planning method has been individual soil conservationists working with
individual landowners.
Eventually, staff of the Soil Conservation Service—SCS—and now the Natural
Resources Conservation Service—NRCS—were stationed in local offices to reach
practically all of the private landowners in the nation’s nearly 3,000 counties.
In 1937, states began enacting laws that created local soil conservation
districts and local groups began organizing these districts. In 1935, the U.S.
Congress passed the Soil Conservation Act and the agency began to receive
additional personnel—nonetheless, the creation of more districts called for more
staffing.
Even in the early days, trained soil conservationists wrote conservation plans
covering various aspects of conservation. A major effort of the service,
probably the primary effort, has been to develop the tools and methods to assist
local soil conservationists in his or her work with individual farmers and
ranchers. The agency also began developing soil surveys that display each unique
soil type on aerial photos with text explaining the limitations of each soil.
This became one of our primary planning tools. Specialists in a host of
disciplines agronomy, engineering, forestry, biology, range management, and
others have developed handbooks and other tools to help the individual soil
conservationist assist farmers.
The next step in the alteration of the planning came in 1951 with the initiation
of what became known as progressive farm planning. Progressive planning had
three steps. The first step was to establish an agreement between each farmer
and the local conservation district. The second was to address immediate soil
erosion and water quality needs of the farmer. And the third was to eventually
develop a complete conservation plan on the entire farm.
Under this system, the soil conservationists did not have to write a complete
farm plan initially. Rather, the farmers signed up as a cooperator with the
conservation district and the landowner and the soil conservationist then worked
on conservation aspects that the farmer preferred to address. The
conservationist was to review work annually, and keep working with the landowner
toward the development of a complete plan. For those who preferred this system,
it represented a recognition that conservationists spend a great deal of time on
a complete farm plan when only a portion of it was actually used. Also its
proponents, believed it focused the efforts of the agency more on the objective
of getting conservation, rather than getting farm plans written. Those who
preferred the complete farm plan method could still contend that it was better
for the farm to be considered in its entirety when planning conservation.
In the late 1940s, SCS tried to accelerate planning by finding the leaders in
rural communities who could lead group planning efforts. Ultimately, the
conservationists had to work on each property, but some found the method useful
to accelerate group planning.
In conservation district offices, Federal employees work directly with the
locally elected conservation district board to develop a plan of operation and
priorities for the entire district. The board was and still is local people
setting conservation priorities to meet local needs. Simultaneously, with the
effort to help districts write plans for districts to solve their problems, the
Soil Conservation Service found itself involved in another, related planning
effort. The Flood Control Act of 1936 authorized the Soil Conservation Service
to address flood control in small watersheds. This is because flood control also
helped reduce the movement of sediment into streams and rivers, helped reduce
damage to cropland and urban areas and provided water for irrigation. The
conservationist had to work with individuals and communities and the benefits of
the projects had to outweigh the costs.
In 1954, another Act of Congress authorized the Soil Conservation Service to
become involved in interagency and intergovernmental river basin planning. The
river basin studies were conducted at several different levels of scope and
objectives and they included agricultural, economics, flooding, erosion, water
development, and other economic and resource issues.
SCS has also had need of information on the conditions of resources information
that could be used in overall planning for the activities of the agency. The
agency has carried out various inventories of conservation needs and natural
resources to help not only plan the agency’s activities, but also to communicate
with Congress and community leaders and all citizens.
So with this, we developed the reputation that we are trained professionals who
had the skills and technologies to help farmers with their land and other
natural resource problems. It has taken almost 70 years to get where we are
today. We learned how to work in partnership with farmers, gleaning what they
know and spreading their knowledge through demonstration and common-sense
application. Isn’t this the beginning of any technology?
In the research lab and on the land, we studied and refined what worked for
farmers. We kept records—the proof of what conservation practices and methods
worked and what did not work. SCS standardized the planning process for
delivering technical assistance to clients to make it an orderly approach to
decision making.
In the United States, we currently work with individuals and groups to help
conserve and protect natural resources, just like we did more than 60 years ago
when this partnership started between farmers and ranchers and Federal and local
government.
• The purposes of the Natural Resources Conservation Service planning process
are to:
1. Provide a structured system that helps planner and client alike work together
to identify and treat resource problems.
2. Help clients recognize and understand resource problems and their causes.
3. Develop and evaluate alternative solutions that lead to decisions to select,
implement, and maintain conservation treatments.
4. Provide opportunities for the public to participate in the process in an open
manner.
5. Assess effectiveness of planning and systematically record observed results
of treatments that have been applied in order to improve future planning
assistance.
6. Ensure that all human considerations are fully addressed in solution of
resource problems.
7. Incorporate management objectives of local conservation districts in
conservation assistance.
Today, we use a nine-step conservation planning process, which you will hear
more about later today. It is the way we deliver technical assistance in an
organized consistent way. The planning process is site-specific—we work directly
with farmers on their land.
The planning process is dynamic and flexible because...
• Every client is unique;
• Every farm or ranch is unique;
• Every planning situation is unique; and
• Conservation planning on the part of the client is voluntary.
As we work with farmers to help them develop conservation plans, the client must
be involved throughout the planning process and development of the conservation
plan. The farmer does make the final decision, deciding how and when to
implement the plan, and the farmer owns the plan.
Conservation planning is the foundation for the conservation work of the agency
and our conservation partnership. Our conservation partnership is a partnership
among farm organizations, all levels of government—including the local
conservation district, and, of course, farmers and ranchers.
Plans that exist at the broader scale are also taken into account, as much as
possible, when working with individual clients. Examples of these types of plans
include areawide conservation plans, watershed plans, community plans, and
conservation district plans.
Supporting Materials:
Over the years, we’ve developed a number of supporting materials that explain
the technologies and the processes to plan and apply conservation. We made an
investment in mapping the nations soils. Currently, there are soil surveys in 91
percent of our counties. These contain detailed information about the
characteristics of each type of soil, maps showing where soils are located, and
the limitations of each soil depending on the intended use.
We have a General Manual that contains our agency's policies on all aspects of
our work, including how we will conduct our programs and meet our obligations as
authorized by the U.S. Congress. The NRCS National Planning Procedures Handbook
provides guidance on the "how to" of the planning process as related to the
planning policy established in the General Manual.
The General Manual, among other documents, establishes policy for the NRCS Field
Office Technical Guide. The local Field Office Technical Guide contains the
technical information needed to assist clients in the development and
application of conservation plans. It is not a notebook that looks the same in
every office, but it contains general resource information about the field
office area, including soil and site information and quality criteria to be met
in Resource Management Systems. It also contains guidance documents depicting
the resource management planning thought process, practice standards for all
practices applicable to the local field office area, and examples of the
conservation effects of our decision making process.
We have a Conservation Planning Procedures Handbook that explains the nine-step
planning process we now use to gather information, help farmers make decisions,
and record and implement those decisions.
We have the National Handbook of Conservation Practices with 159 national
conservation practices. Each state selects which of these 159 practices they
might use and adapts it to local conditions by adding specifications on weather,
soils, local regulations, and other criteria. When used, these practices will
help farmers correct specific land and water resource problems. These practices
and their specifications are revised at least every five years to assure that we
are using the latest science and technologies available. Examples of these
practices include:
• brush management
• ponds
• contour farming
• pest management,
• nutrient management
• composting facility
• firebreaks
• grazing land mechanical treatment
• irrigation field ditches
• pumping plants for water control, and many others.
Also, to assure that every tool—reference and information—is available to our
field conservationists, we have developed technical handbooks, guides and
manuals that address specific resources. The National Forestry Manual provides
policy and guidelines for forest and agroforestry resource conservation
planning. The National Agronomy Manual contains policy and guidelines on crops
and soils. A soon-to-be-completed Nutrient Management Manual will contain policy
and guidelines and the assistance we must give farmers to help them deal with
animal manure as well as commercial fertilizers. The National Soils Survey
Handbook contains guides for conducting soil surveys and making soil
interpretations used in resources planning and soil information incorporated
into the Field Office Technical Guide. The National Range and Pasture Handbook
contains policy and procedures for the study, inventory, analysis, treatment,
and management of grazing land resources. These Handbooks and manuals are
included as a reference in every Field Office Technical Guide.
Many of these resources are available on the Internet to anyone who wants to
assess the technology and science they contain. And, of course, the Field Office
Technical Guide, contains a broad range of basic information used by that field
office employees to help farmers plan and apply conservation to protect and
conserve their natural resources.
Conservation planning is both an art and a science. We need to provide
assistance that is science based and technically sound. At the same time, we
also need to be able to work effectively with a multitude of clients, each with
their own unique situation and operation. Training is critical in order for
conservation planners to effectively develop, utilize, and maintain their
conservation planning skills and keep on the cutting edge of science and
technology. As conservation planners, we must consider all of the resources in
the planning process. We must consider soil, water, air, plants, and animals, as
well as the human element, which are economic and social considerations.
We are always striving to learn and incorporate new science and technologies
into our work. For example, we are currently developing a Customer Service
Toolkit. The Toolkit is a set of computer-based automated conservation planning
tools that are flexible and farmer focused. It provides mapping and Geospatial
analysis with desktop Geographic Information Systems capabilities. It uses
Microsoft Office products, such as spreadsheets and databases to store decisions
made by farmers for conservation planning and application of conservation
practices. The toolkit is the designated software for developing Comprehensive
Nutrient Management Plans. We expect the toolkit to be in use by field offices
by October of this year.
How do we continue to develop, support, and maintain these processes and body of
knowledge?
As part of our recent evolution as an agency, we established a National
Technology Consortium to coordinate the development of new technologies for use
by field conservationists and sometimes from field conservationists. The
consortium is made up of NRCS Institutes and Centers and cooperating scientists
located at universities and colleges. The consortium includes scientists from a
wide range of disciplines related to the conservation of our natural resources
and is connected with national, state, and local specialists, such as nutrient
management specialists, agronomists, soil scientists, agricultural engineers,
grazing lands ecologists, foresters, social scientists, natural resources
specialists, and many others.
The Agricultural Research Service, a research agency in the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, assists us with special research and technology needs, such as wind
erosion prediction models, soil loss erosion prediction models and equations to
determine runoff and soil loss, and other conditions and trends.
In conclusion…to ensure our sustainable relationship to the land, we must
harmonize with, conserve, and restore the natural ecological processes. To do
so, as we provide conservation planning assistance, we must look at the
immediate site and its condition and its context within the larger landscape.
Everything is connected to everything else. As we work to protect one resource
we must consider the effects of our actions on other resources.
A knowledge of soil, water, air, plants, animals, and humans and their
interrelationships is the common denominator for successful conservation
planning assistance. That knowledge is a tool for responsible resource
management that allows conservationists, land users, legislators and others an
opportunity to treat the environment as a living system in which we are an
integral part.
With this tool, we can analyze and work with complex natural processes in
definable and measurable terms. Decisions regarding the capacity of the land are
weighed against the effect upon the living system. Dysfunctional agricultural
and other systems can be recognized and restored for a sustainable balance
between natural functions and human objectives. Conservation planning is a means
to establish or maintain living systems that improve rather than degrade over
time.
NRCS’s future success in conservation planning for sustainable resource use will
depend on how well we utilize available program opportunities, articulate
policies, and develop effective partnerships with public, private and academic
institutions. Creativity, an interdisciplinary approach, and a commitment to
training are equally critical ingredients.
The landscape must be viewed as a complex of interrelated systems. Practices and
designs that enhance resource quality must be developed and planned. Innovative,
comprehensive, and coordinated conservation planning is the key to meeting
environmental, social, and productivity goals.
What are some of the challenges for South Africa?
You must create a system for conserving natural resources that is credible,
viable, and accepted by everyone—especially farmers.
You must convince government and community leaders that an investment now in
conservation of natural resources will payoff later, and it may payoff in ways
that no one can foresee.
You must create a system that taps the existing knowledge of farmers,
agribusiness, and local people. Starting with that knowledge as a base, you must
identify your conservation needs for each community and for each individual.
Then you can ask organizations, government and others to help. It is much more
effective to help someone who knows what they need than it is to try to help
someone who has not thought about it.
As in every country, your challenges are many, but it is the determination of
your people who will make conservation of the natural resources in this great
country a reality!
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