Working Together to Strengthen Working Communities

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, at the National Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils National Conference, San Antonio, TX
July 22, 2003

Thank you, Sharon (Ruggi). Thank you, Joe (Cantu), for inviting me to be here today. And thank you, Bobbi (Jeanquart), for everything you’ve done, not just to put on this conference, but for your support of the vision of the RC&D program over the past few years. It is truly a joy to work with RC&D folks.

It is great that Under Secretary Mark Rey was able to announce designation of the newest seven RC&D areas here this week. I congratulate everyone who worked so hard to prepare the applications for these new areas. Designation of these seven new areas still leaves us with 21 applications on hand. I want to encourage those who have worked so hard on these applications to be patient and keep working toward your goal.

The last time I talked to an RC&D group was in February when I spoke at the NARC&DC National Leadership Forum in Washington, DC. I’ve also had a chance to see the RC&D Program on the ground. Last fall, I went on a tour with Joe and Bobbi to see RC&D projects in Nebraska. I was impressed.

There are a lot of good things happening around the country because of the hard work of RC&D councils in partnership with many local leaders and local institutions.


Accomplishments

Last year was quite a year for NRCS. We – NRCS, councils, districts, and other partners applied resource management systems on more than 22 million acres, helped farmers and ranchers reduce the risk of drought and flooding on 13 million acres, and served more than 3 million customers in NRCS offices.

We also completed new soil maps or updated soil maps on 23 million acres. Served 2 million costumers through our PLANTS database, performed more than 1 million hours of volunteer conservation work through the Earth Team, provided more than $100 million in drought and disaster assistance, and informed 35 million people of Backyard Conservation.

Last year was also quite a year for the RC&D areas. You completed more than 4,000 projects and brought in more than $252 million from other sources! This ability to bring in partners may be your greatest strength – a strength that will continue to serve you well in the future.

You also improved habitat on more than two million acres, improved more than 200 thousand acres of lakes and nearly 2,500 miles of streams. These accomplishments make RC&D areas a major contributor to conservation in this country. Your work also benefited more than 772,000 economically disadvantaged people last year,

I know a bit about how things get done out in rural America. I’ve only been Chief for a year, and I’ve only been involved in national farm and conservation policy for 15 years or so, but I have been a resident of a rural community in South Dakota all my life.

That is where my land ethic originated – a land ethic that comes from my father and those before him and that I share with all of you who are so deeply involved in the RC&D program. An ethic that understands that while we hold title to that land, we are really only stewards of the land for the limited time we are here on Earth.

Your commitment to conservation, your work in local communities, and your accomplishments over the years are a large part of why Congress finally recognized in the 2002 farm bill that RC&D Areas should be a permanent part of the landscape of our great country. I congratulate you all for obtaining permanent authorization. It is a great milestone.


Progress in the Last Three Years

A lot has changed in the three years since the last NARC&DC Conference in Ogden. For one thing, the number of RC&D areas has grown from 315 to 375. Over the same period, the RC&D budget has grown from $35 million to $50 million. However, that is still quite a bit short of what we need to fully fund RC&D areas. But we’re slowly getting there.

The 2002 farm bill both permanently authorizes the RC&D program and marks a tremendous change in the resources available to RC&D areas to do good things for rural communities.

With an additional 18.5 billion-dollar conservation investment over a 10-year period, the farm bill provides the means. RC&D Councils must provide the innovative thinking and build the partnerships to tap into farm bill programs and put this investment to work.

All these signs indicate a bright future for the RC&D Program.


Factors for Success

Your continued success depends on three factors – visibility, diversity, and accountability:
Maintaining high visibility for the worthwhile projects you take on, reflecting all the sectors of the public you serve, and continuing to set your own high standards for accomplishments that are responsive to your areas’ needs.


Visibility

One of the things RC&D councils have been particularly excellent at is developing a high level of visibility in the community. Part of this success is driven by your ability to bring in a wide array of partners to help get your work done. You would not have succeeded without making the wider community aware of what you were hoping to accomplish.

With such wide community support, your successes also attract public notice, which, in turn, leads to more interest in what you are doing. That wide public interest and support in communities across the nation has translated nationally into permanent authorization and increased budgets. It also translates into increased scrutiny and accountability, which I will talk about in just a minute.

The 2002 farm bill creates opportunities to take this cycle of visibility, success, and support to a whole new level. And you need to maintain the cycle, because you are going to need more partners and more support to invest farm bill funds wisely in your communities – and to stretch those funds to get the most conservation done as you can.


Diversity

Diversity will also be important to your success. As Under Secretary Rey said yesterday, the scope of conservation under the new farm bill increases the obligation to serve everyone equally in every community.

USDA is being held increasingly responsible for delivering Agriculture programs to all citizens in this country, and that responsibility flows through agreements and contracts to everywhere Federal dollars are involved, whether that be a coordinator’s salary, in-kind contributions, or direct support.

NRCS and all of its partners must live up to this responsibility in everything we do, from meetings with landowners to delivery of services.

Accountability
Finally, the opportunities presented by the 2002 farm bill come with increased accountability.

In exchange for providing permanent authorization, Congress has requested that we complete a program evaluation and submit a report to them by June of 2005. We will be working with you to complete this evaluation.

In addition, this Administration has established a set of President’s Management Initiatives: strategic management of human capital, competitive sourcing, improved financial performance, expanding e-government, and budget and program integration. These initiatives are affecting how NRCS and all other federal agencies will operate. They will lead to overall improvement in the effectiveness of the federal government.

We are being challenged to link future budget levels to performance or results of implementing each program. With that in mind, I ask that you bear with us as we adjust to the changes in how we carry out our work.

I also want to reassure you that you will still set the agenda for the work that you think is important to accomplish in your area, and we remain committed to helping you get that work done.


Moving Beyond Working Lands to Working Communities

The last thing I want to talk about today is a new -- and broader – way of looking at conservation.

One of the great things about the 2002 farm bill is that it shifts the balance of conservation programs from land retirement programs to programs that stress conservation on working lands. In making this shift, the farm bill recognizes that the prime purpose of agricultural land is to produce the food, feed, fiber, and energy that society needs.

Farm bill programs increasingly acknowledge the role of conservation in supporting productivity. The RC&D Program takes this shift in emphasis one step farther. By tying together conservation and development, RC&D also ties together agricultural production and community development.

Strong, prosperous communities, coupled with strong farms and ranches, are the backbone of strong agricultural productivity. And the foundation of all this is a strong resource base, maintained and improved through good conservation.

It is easy to see how our polices, goals, and objectives have moved toward working lands. We also need to look at ways we can improve our policies, goals, and objectives to enable and support working communities. We need to put an end to the mind set that conservation and a vibrant community are in opposition.

The challenge is to move away from fragmentation – a buffer here, a lagoon, there a tire recycling operation over there – and adopt a holistic approach to conservation that addresses the overall conservation goals of the community.

I challenge you to look beyond the RC&D provision in the Conservation Title of the farm bill to the other provisions and to explore with your State Conservationists how you can use these resources to accomplish the conservation goals of your communities.

You should regard Conservation Technical Assistance, the Technical Service Provider process, EQIP, the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program, and all other provisions of the bill as tools for you to use as appropriate.

The report being released at this conference by your Farm Bill Task Force contains many conservation success stories.

The work of the RC&D Policy Advisory Board is a good example of what needs to be done to broaden our emphasis. Working with the PAB is an important part of increasing understanding within USDA of the RC&D program and what it can accomplish. I hope you will attend the PAB Forum on Wednesday to hear more about how to forge better and increased linkages between USDA and Department of the Interior agencies and your RC&D projects.

The strength that RC&D council members bring to the table is that you can make things happen. You are an essential link between strong communities and a healthy environment.


Conclusion

You are great partners, and you bring great good to your communities. Together, we have accomplished and will continue to accomplish outstanding things to improve the environment and quality of life in this country. Together, we can continue to be catalysts for conservation.

Thank you.