The Rancher as Conservationist

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief
Natural Resources Conservation Service
at the Community Based Conservation Network Meeting
Steamboat Springs, CO

September 13, 2002

Thank you, Brent. It is a pleasure to be here with you today representing Mark Rey and the Department of Agriculture.

I feel right at home here today, not because I head the Federal government’s lead agency for conservation on private land, but because first, and foremost, I am a rancher and farmer. I have an operation in South Dakota, my native state. It’s a diversified grain and cattle operation using no till and rest rotation grazing systems. My father impressed on me that we may be the landowners, but we are really just the stewards of the land. That is how I have run my operation.

I think it is fate that brought me here today – because I almost didn’t come. The time slot for this meeting came right between two periods of extended travel for me, and I knew I had to decline. I felt I needed to be in Washington this week and next to help maintain our momentum on Farm Bill implementation -- and preserve some time to be with my wife and children.

On the other hand, the invitation to attend this meeting stood out from the others I had received. As a rancher and a conservationist, I could totally relate to the title of the meeting – “The Rancher as Conservationist.” The guest list of landowners and conservation-funding organizations seemed like my kind of people. And what could be better than the Rocky Mountains in the fall?

I held the invitation between the “accept” pile and the “decline” pile for quite some time, before I could force myself to give up the pleasurable prospect of being here in Steamboat with you today. But fate intervened. Mark Rey, the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment couldn’t be here today. And he asked me to fill in. So, here I am in beautiful Steamboat Springs on a beautiful Friday morning in September. With people who value conservation on America’s private lands.

As I looked over the background material on this meeting and the Community Based Conservation Network, I couldn’t help but notice how closely your objectives and those of the Department of Agriculture coincide when it comes to getting conservation done on the land. The Sand County Foundation calls for, and I quote, “A new and more constructive alliance among landholders, private philanthropists and government.”

I can assure you that the Administration and the Department of Agriculture share that vision. You can see that shared vision in the new Farm Bill, as well as in the Food and Agriculture Policy document the Department published last year.

The Department’s policy document supports all aspects of conservation assistance, including technical assistance, financial assistance, land retirement, and stewardship incentive payments as an integrated “portfolio” of instruments responsive to Americans’ growing expectations about agriculture’s role in promoting and protecting environmental quality.

It also stresses partnership and collaboration to permit private sector participation in providing environmental goods and services, to maximize environmental benefits for conservation dollars spent, and to encourage competition and leveraging of resources.

The farm bill by itself represents the single most significant commitment of resources toward conservation on private lands in the nation’s history -- nearly $13 billion over the life of the bill. As the Department specified in its policy document, the farm bill provides a balanced portfolio of tools for conservation, including technical assistance, cost-sharing, land retirement, easements, and also a new stewardship incentives program.

Among other things, the farm bill provides incentives for proper conservation practices on working lands and helps farmers and ranchers improve the environment and meet environmental expectations.

The farm bill presents some really great opportunities for conservation on ranchlands in particular. To be frank, Federal conservation programs in recent years have not been that good for ranchers. Even though many ranch families have realized the need for conservation for more than a century.

One rancher who pioneered the conservation ethic was my personal hero, Theodore Roosevelt. I like Roosevelt, not just because he was such a champion of conservation, but also because he spent some formative time in the Dakotas, where I grew up and received my conservation education.

At a particularly difficult time in his life -- after he had just lost both his wife and his mother – Roosevelt bought a ranch in North Dakota and began his education on the relationship between people and the land. Over time, he developed the beliefs that made him a champion of conservation.

Roosevelt, like many of us, actually lost his shirt as a Dakota rancher. Overgrazing, combined with a severe winter, wiped him out, along with many other landowners from the East and Europe who thought ranching in the Northern Plains was an easy way to make money. The departure of these large landowners from the scene in the late 1880s opened the way for small ranchers and homesteaders, who were much more closely linked to the land they lived on and worked. We might call the efforts of these pioneers to learn how to take care of their land the first manifestation of “The Rancher as Conservationist.”

Much later, when USDA had its Great Plains Program, the Federal government became involved in helping give ranchers the tools they needed to be conservationists. Unfortunately, with the demise of the Great Plains Program, many of these tools became less available.

The good news is that the new farm bill puts a number of conservation tools back into the hands of landowners. Not only is there more money overall, but the elimination of priority areas means programs will be more widely available for ranchers.

The increased emphasis on conservation in food and agriculture policy and the new farm bill indicates that the Administration, the Congress, and the American people are coming to agree with Roosevelt that “There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country.”

I am excited about the new farm bill because it gives us the ability to implement win-win solutions, supported by the Federal Government and worked out by local conservation leaders, and landowners, operators, and managers, who are the stewards of that land. And, that really goes back to what I learned, first from my father, and, later firsthand, as a landowner -- a recognition that, while I may hold title to some of that soil out there, I am only a steward of that soil for a certain amount of time.

I want to take a few minutes to summarize the funding for various programs under the new farm bill. These programs are among the tools that will help you -- in the words of your program brochure – ”improve the profitability, marketability and manageability of your working lands.”

The farm bill does emphasize conservation on working lands.

It provides the most dramatic growth in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The new farm bill provides more than $5.5 billion over six years. On the first of August, Secretary Veneman announced the release of $227 million for EQIP nationwide, in addition to the $187 million released last spring. We are using this money to provide financial and technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, and tribes. Of the additional $227 million, $200 million is for general enrollment for EQIP yet this fiscal year. An additional $25 million is being used to provide technical and financial assistance for ground and surface water conservation.
 
That’s enough about EQIP. Let me run quickly through the other programs.

The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program increases to $360 million over six years under the new farm bill. An additional $15 million was released this year.

The new farm bill provides for several programs to protect working farm and rangelend thatI know you will be interested in, including the Farmland Protection Program and the Grasslands Reserve Program. The Farmland Protection Program will have nearly $600 million over six years. A request for proposals for $50 million in funding was published this summer in the Federal Register. And the Secretary released nearly $50 million in FPP funds just last week .

The new farm bill also permanently authorizes the Resource Conservation and Development Program to promote protection of natural resources and improvement of local economies. Nearly all areas of the country are now included in RC&D areas. RC&D councils are forever coming up with innovative ways to bring individuals and groups into partnerships to protect and enhance natural resources and improve local economies.

In addition, the Wetlands Reserve Program, has significant increases in its acreage cap.

The farm bill also provides for several other programs to protect working farmland, including the Grasslands Reserve Program. The Grasslands Reserve Program will have a quarter of a billion dollars in mandatory spending to enroll up to two million acres of grazing land.

The Conservation Security Program will provide payments for producers who have historically practiced good stewardship on their agricultural lands and incentives for those who want to do more.

Some of the programs contained in the farm bill give us the ability to deal with one of the most important environmental issues facing both ranchers and communities. That issue is urban sprawl and new development. This is an issue that Mark Rey talks about frequently, and I share his views.

The top five states in terms of percentage growth in population from 1990 to 2000 are Nevada 66.3%, Arizona 40.0%, Colorado 30.6%, Utah 29.6%, and Idaho 28.5% -- all in ranch country.

Studies have shown that most family ranchers want to stay on the land, but are gradually being forced to sell. Over the 15-year period from 1982 to 1997, more than 3.2 million acres of rangeland were converted to developed land-condos and ranchettes. As one newspaper account put it, "mounting debts, drought, and environmental lawsuits have taken a relentless toll on the roughly 20,000 small ranchers in the West."

The exurban growth into the wildland/urban interface -- translation: the conversion of ranches into subdivisions – is a critical concern driving a number of environmental and land management problems, including wildland fire policy, water rights conflicts, and water quality degradation.

The subdivided ranchland often contains critical habitat used by species all across the range. For example, large animals such as elk use national forest lands in the summer and migrate to lower elevations in the fall. They need private rangeland at lower elevations to survive harsh winter conditions. As ranchers are forced to sell, the winter range for wildlife is being fragmented and lost. The net effect is that we lose habitat needed to maintain viable populations of native wildlife.

Many native species are declining and being replaced by species adapted to human habitations. One scientist who has studied the problem is Richard Knight, a wildlife conservationist at Colorado State University. He is no relation to me, by the way.

Anyway, Knight puts it this way: "Rather than lark buntings and bobcats, we will have starlings and skunks. Rather than rattlesnakes and warblers, we will have garter snakes and robins. Is that the West we want?"

Conservation programs such as WHIP give us the ability to improve the habitat for native species on America’s ranchlands. And that’s vitally important.

One of the biggest issues facing ranches this year is drought. Many people see drought as a production issue, an economic issue. I’m sure many of you see how dry things are on your own ranches every time you look out the window. I can on my ranch in South Dakota.

My operation is not in as bad a shape as it could be, because we acted on predictions and cut back on stocking levels. We will also protect the range, and our economic position, by taking the cattle off the range this week.

For many ranchers, our decisions on stocking levels and grazing season are supported by NRCS services that are available to all ranchers. One of those services is the Drought Monitor site on the Internet, which is produced weekly with input of data and drought assessments by NRCS experts at the National Water and Climate Center.

But, beyond helping ranchers make decisions based on good water data, the Department of Agriculture is also doing everything it can to assist producers, including expediting emergency disaster declarations, providing emergency loans, and providing crop insurance.

Eleven entire states, and a total of 1,470 counties, have received disaster designations this year. Approximately 80% of cropland is covered by crop insurance, which is up significantly from just a few years ago. We are also providing help for livestock producers, who don’t have the same risk management tools available such as crop insurance.

In July, Secretary Veneman authorized emergency haying of Conservation Reserve Program acreage and Water Bank Program contract holders in parts of several states to provide forage for livestock and to help producers in areas most severely affected by drought. And just this week, she expanded this authority nationwide. The Secretary announced $150 million in supplemental feed in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming, where 75% or more of the pasture and range is rated as poor or very poor.

We at NRCS are also helping operators combat the effects of drought. We are providing incentives for farmers and ranchers in drought states to help minimize the erosion of drought-stricken rangelands. Funding from EQIP is available to help landowners plant cover crops, use farming techniques that don’t disturb the soil, and graze cattle in ways that will preserve forage.

In WHIP, we can enter into one-year wildlife emergency agreements to help landowners meet the immediate habitat needs of wildlife affected by these natural disasters. Efforts may include planting native seeds and forbs, leaving food plots within existing fields, establishing buffers, and stabilizing steep slopes.

As you can see, these drought-related practices covered by EQIP and WHIP are also good conservation practices overall.

In closing, let me say how much we at NRCS look forward to working with the Community Based Conservation Network and others who want to work together on resource issues. The NRCS mission is one of helping people conserve, maintain, and improve our natural resources and environment.

We’re concerned with all resources soil, water, air, wildlife habitat, and cultural resources. The cornerstone of our work is local leadership. Teddy Roosevelt once said “The movement for the conservation of wild life and the large movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic inspirit, purpose and method.”

That is certainly true as far as NRCS is concerned. We think locally led conservation is the only conservation that works. That is why we will continue to work with local groups to help every private landowner in America achieve his or her conservation goals.

Thank you.