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Dee River Ranch: True Excellence in Conservation
Remarks prepared for delivery by Gary W. Mast,
USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment, at the
NRCS 2008 Excellence in Conservation Award Ceremony.
Montgomery, Alabama
April 30, 2008
INTRODUCTION
Thanks, Zona [Beaty]. Commissioner Sparks, ladies and gentlemen, friends of
conservation: good morning. Chief Lancaster was very disappointed not to be able
to be here, but he’s back in Washington helping to push the Farm Bill across the
finish line—so I got to come to Alabama instead. I definitely came out ahead on
that deal!
I really am pleased to join you today to celebrate national Soil and Water
Stewardship Week and to present the Natural Resources Conservation Service 2008
Excellence in Conservation Award to Mike Dee and Annie Dee—two key conservation
leaders here in the Heart of Dixie.
Some may be surprised to learn that national Stewardship Week has been observed
for more than 50 years; about 15 years longer than Earth Day, in fact. The week
is the brainchild of the National Association of Conservation Districts—NACD,
whose members are steadfast partners with NRCS in getting voluntary, locally led
conservation practices on the ground in nearly 3,000 soil and water conservation
districts nationwide.
The purpose of Stewardship Week is to get Americans thinking about our natural
resources, and the personal and social responsibility we all have to use them
wisely and leave them better for future generations. This reminder is an
important one, because it is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that
conservation is the job of agencies, rather than of individuals and communities.
Every morning, I get a thick folder of newspaper clippings on my desk,
containing that day’s ag and conservation news stories. Over time, I have
observed that media coverage tends to focus on big resource issues on big tracts
of land, such as protecting endangered species in Yellowstone or fighting fires
in California forests. Clearly, responsible management of large-scale public
lands is a national priority. But you and I both know that truly lasting change
for the environment can only be achieved through effective partnerships with
private property owners, since two-thirds of U.S. land is in their hands. If our
goal is productive lands and a healthy environment, we have to make every
acre—public and private—count for conservation.
Stewardship on private lands yields public benefits we all enjoy, starting with
improved soils—our most basic natural resource—and including cleaner air,
cleaner and more abundant water, and increased wildlife habitat, to name just a
few.
Gaining recognition for the farmers and ranchers who contribute to our
environmental well-being by practicing conservation on working lands is the
reason we established the NRCS Excellence in Conservation Award. It is the
highest honor we bestow on conservationists outside the Agency and is given just
once each year—following a rigorous selection process that begins with
nominations from our State Conservationists, includes a panel of experts at NRCS
National Headquarters, and ends at the Chief’s desk.
Let me tell you that our State Conservationists have pretty exacting standards,
and Chief Lancaster told me that by the time the list of finalists hit his
inbox, he really had his work cut out for him in making a decision.
All of which is to say that the Dees faced some pretty stiff and impressive
competition before rising to the top.
But rise to the top they did. Now let me tell you why.
Their operation, the 10,000-acre Dee River Ranch, reflects the traditional
values Mike and Annie and their siblings learned from their parents and
grandparents, who were farmers before them. (As an aside, my brother and I farm
about a thousand acres in Ohio and custom forage harvest about another 7,000
there, so I have a good feel for the size of the Dees’ ranch.)
Yet, while remaining mindful of their heritage, they also willingly embrace new
ideas and technologies where it makes sense to, to enhance productivity and help
conserve natural resources.
For instance, while others continue to debate the merits of alternative energy
sources, the Dees power their ranch vehicles with bio-fuels, having installed a
bio-diesel facility to convert their soybeans, sunflowers, and canola on-farm
for this purpose. This process also provides a protein by-product for cattle
feed. And they have placed GPS receivers on their tractors, combines and
sprayers to help reduce fuel consumption, as well as soil compaction and
overlapping.
I referred to soil earlier as our most basic natural resource and, with respect
to soil conservation, the Dees’ nomination reads like an encyclopedia of Best
Management Practices. To reduce erosion and loss of soil moisture, they have
installed geo-textile cloth and gravel in heavy-use areas. They supplement
commercial fertilizer with poultry litter on hay and pasture lands. They plant
winter cover crops as part of a conservation tillage cropping system and have
established beneficial forest and riparian buffers.
Mike and Annie are committed to sustainable agriculture and support the larger
community by hosting farm tours and school groups to raise awareness of
agricultural and conservation concerns.
As you can see, “cooperative conservation” isn’t just some pie-in-the-sky ideal
to the Dees: it is how they live and operate, day in and day out. Just listen to
this catalog of their partners: the University of Alabama Medical School, the
Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industry, the Alabama Department of Natural
Resources, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, Auburn
University, the USDA National Soil Dynamics Lab, Alabama Cooperative Extension
Service, in addition to NRCS and the Pickens County Soil and Water Conservation
District. I may have missed a few, but I think you get the point. Who wouldn’t
want to partner with them?
In his nomination, Gary referred to Dee River Ranch as “a farm of distinction
worthy of the NRCS Excellence in Conservation Award.” After reading the full
write-up, I couldn’t help but to agree.
Mike and Annie, let me congratulate you on your considerable success. Your
purpose and your passion for conservation shine through in all you do. Thank you
for your inspiring leadership example, during national Stewardship Week and
throughout the year. I am genuinely proud to meet you today, and to present you
with this award on behalf of Chief Lancaster and the men and women of the
Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Now, if you’ll please join me here at the podium…
[END]
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