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Conservation Planning Training a Success
Recently, 21 natural
resource professionals gathered from all six of the New England states for a
conservation planning training held by the
USDA Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS) in Durham,
New Hampshire. The attendee’s were employees of the NRCS,
Conservation Districts and
U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) Technical Services Providers (TSP).
During the week-long course in August, participants crafted conservation plans
for the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Organic Dairy in Lee,
New Hampshire. The training
session was hosted at the research farm by Kevin Brussell. The Organic Dairy was
a perfect site for the course as it has an educational mission.
![Kevin Brussell, of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Organic Dairy in Lee, hosted the conservation planning training participants during the week of Aug. 27-31, 2007.](images/ConservPlanTraining.JPG)
“It was a great networking experience for employees as young and seasoned
natural resource professionals from various backgrounds learned from each
other,” said District Conservationist Rachel Phillips-Tibbetts, who helped
organize and conduct the course.
"I was impressed with how much knowledge the attendees came with when
some really hadn’t been involved in conservation planning before. This course
was very successful in raising their awareness level of natural resources issues
and how conservation planning can be used to address those resource concerns."
Conservation planning is an
essential part of conserving natural resources. It focuses on the natural
resource systems and ecological processes that sustain the resources. The
conservation planner strives to balance natural resource issues involving soil,
water, air, plants and animals with energy, economic and social needs of humans.
Conservation planning really is all about solving problems on the land, and how
to prevent the problems.
The central part of the (NRCS) assistance is through helping people develop
and implement a conservation plan for their working lands. The conservation
planning process helps you identify natural resource challenges and
opportunities on your operation. A conservation plan can be the road-map you
can use to meet your individual conservation objectives and keep a record of
your decisions regarding the management of your land.
![Conservation planning attendees were hands-on throughout the training. Allen Leveille, of PAL, gave a session on identifying cultural resources at building sites and elsewhere.](images/ConservPlanningTraining-PAL2.jpg)
Conservation planning is important because it is the building blocks and a
crucial element of resource sustainability and helps to conserve natural
resources. Conservation planning also helps landowners, communities, and
planners work together to identify their resources and accomplish multiple
objectives that are best for the land, water, wildlife and people.
To find out more about conservation planning, visit New Hampshire
NRCS on the
web at: Conservation Planning
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