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…

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