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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.
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