The 2002 Farm Bill: One Year Later

Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service at the Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Conference, Spokane, WA
July 28, 2003


Thank you, Gus (Raymond Hughbanks). Good morning everyone. I am happy to be here at the Annual Conference of the Soil and Water Conservation Society.

Every morning when I get off the elevator on the second wing, fifth floor of USDA’s South Building in Washington, DC, I am greeted by the classic dustbowl photograph of a farmer fleeing a dust storm, coupled with a quote by Hugh Hammond Bennett: “We are completely dependent upon the productive land for the food we eat. . . . To protect our source of food, then, the only sensible, practical thing to do is to protect the productive land we have.” That photograph and that quotation form the context in which I make all my decisions as Chief of NRCS.

This morning, I will talk a bit about what NRCS has been doing since the 2002 farm bill became law, and what we will be doing during the coming year. Because SWCS members represent such a wide array of disciplines, I will also talk a bit about another important resource issue, the President’s Healthy Forests Initiative.


Historic Setting

A year ago in Indianapolis, I was asked repeatedly for my vision for NRCS, as well as conservation as a whole. My reply was that I didn’t want to share that vision until I had a chance to fully comprehend, assess, and sop out the depth and breadth of the Agency. A year has passed. Now is the time to answer that question.

My vision for NRCS is for the Agency recognized world-wide as the premier enabler of voluntary, private lands conservation. On conservation policy, we have the potential to use our new conservation authorities to position the United States as an example of locally-driven, voluntary conservation efforts into the next generation of farm, trade, and conservation policy.

To achieve these dreams, this type of vision must be the direction for all conservationists, landowners, professionals, activists. That is why this fall we will launch a comprehensive strategic planning visioning process that will embrace the entire conservation community in developing the next NRCS Strategic Plan.



Accomplishments

A year ago In Indianapolis, I also gave you a short list of the things we needed to do fairly quickly to implement the farm bill. Let’s take a look at that list and what we have accomplished.

First, we had to inform producers about the conservation provisions of the farm bill. We did that through our farm bill web site and through outreach meetings all around the country. We were so successful that thousands of new applications rolled in, and we again have backlogs for all the farm bill programs. Our outreach efforts continue, so we can be sure that all farmers know about the farm bill, including the traditionally underserved segments of the producer community.

Second, we had to train our employees to get the job done. The proof of our success in the training arena was that our employees were able to put in place nearly three quarters of a billion dollars in contracts for conservation programs before the end of the last fiscal year. They couldn’t have gotten these contracts out if they didn’t know how to administer the farm bill programs. This year, we allocated $1.8 billion to the states for farm bill programs and Conservation Technical Assistance – more than double the challenge.

Third, we had to expedite the rule-making process for provisions of the farm bill. I am proud of the hard work that hundreds of NRCS employees have done to keep us on track in rule making. Today, we only have rules for the Grassland Reserve Program and the Conservation Security Program left to complete. I think we have done a good job of keeping the rules simple and keeping the decision making at the local level, a process first dubbed “lean and local” by Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Jim Moseley at last year’s SWCS meeting.

Fourth, we had to create a process for using the talents of Technical Service Providers. That effort has gone well. The rule for Technical Service Providers is in place. We also have Memorandums of Understanding in place recognizing the certification programs of professional organizations and other certifying bodies. More than 1,600 providers have used our TechReg site on the internet to begin the certification process, and more than half have completed certification. Not to exceed rates will be released this week indicating how much we will pay for services. We have allocated $20 million to the States to use for obtaining services from technical service providers.

Fifth, we had to work more closely with the Farm Service Agency to make our processes more efficient. We’ve made great steps in that direction, including eliminating the dual approvals formerly required for the Conservation Reserve Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. And, we recently held a joint meeting of NRCS State Conservationists and FSA State Executive Directors on farm bill implementation and coordination.


We had many other accomplishments last year. After all, it is what we do for the resource that really matters. We – NRCS and our partners, districts, State agencies, Resource Conservation and Development Councils, and non-governmental organizations –

• 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.

• Served more than 3 million customers in NRCS offices.

• 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

• Completed more than 4,000 projects, with the help of more than $252 million from other sources.

And, we informed 35 million people of Backyard Conservation.


Future Plans

So, what does that leave for us to do during the coming year? Plenty!

I already mentioned that the investment in conservation programs jumped from three quarters of billion dollars last year to $1.8 billion this year. Well, it goes up again next year. President Bush has asked for 3.8 billion dollars for conservation in his 2004 budget. I see this coming year as when we can really get busy on that vision of becoming an enabler or a catalyst for conservation.


Streamlining

Beyond putting this growing investment to work on the ground, we will also be looking for ways during the coming year to streamline the delivery of these programs. We recently asked NRCS employees for their ideas on how to streamline our operations and received close to 1,400 suggestions. Sorting through these suggestions and putting the good ones in place will be a major undertaking this year. We are also looking at restructuring our Science and Technology organization. These processes are intended to build and enhance the excellence of our existing technology delivery infrastructure.
Expanding our Technical Capacity

In addition, we also want to improve conservation delivery, measurement, and outcomes by modernizing and expanding our technical capacity.

e-FOTG
We already have a good start on this. Part of our effort last year was to bring our National and State technical Guides up to date and create an electronic Field Office Technical Guide or e-FOTG. I hope many of you have had a chance to use the enhanced services of e-FOTG on the Internet.

Our Customer Service Toolkit is also available on line, and we have more products like these in the pipeline – products that will position NRCS as the enabling platform for conservation technology.

National Standards
It is especially important that we keep our national conservation practice standards up to date. In some cases, this means revising standards to include the best current science. In other cases, it involves creating entirely new standards covering emerging technologies.

National policy and national conservation practice standards provide quality control for the conservation work undertaken on America’s private lands. When a practice is installed according to criteria specified in the practice standard and the plans and specifications, the landowner knows that he or she has received a conservation product that solves a particular resource problem, the contractor understands his/her responsibility in providing a quality job on the ground, and NRCS employees and the employees of our partners know that they have acted within the scope of our employment.

In these ways, the standards protect everyone involved, including landowners, conservation contractors, district employees, and NRCS employees.

We now have 165 national standards. NRCS policy requires that all of these standards be reviewed and revised, if needed, on a five-year basis. So far this fiscal year, we have issued 20 revised standards, 1 new standard, and have withdrawn 2 unused standards.

Interim Standards
Another part of the process of creating conservation technical standards is to consider interim standards for conversion to national standards. Interim Conservation Practice Standards are used to try new or innovative technology that may impact resource concerns. Currently there are 83 nationally numbered State Interim Practice Standards.

State Interim Standards are issued by the State for a three-year trial period. An evaluation report is written. If the technology is successful, the interim standard is recommended to become a national standard. If the technology is not successful, the interim standard is removed from the Field office Technical Guide.

Within the last two years, five interim standards have been converted to National Conservation Practice Standards. Currently, there are ten interim standards being reviewed and revised to become new National Conservation Practice Standards.

To become a world-recognized enabler of conservation, we must do better – update more standards and review them faster, and also develop more innovative practices, review them, and standardize them.


Healthy Forest Initiative

In addition to all this activity at NRCS, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior are also working on the issue of healthy forests.

Under Secretary Mark Rey tried to be here with you today. His schedule didn’t allow him to get here, but asked me to underscore on his behalf and on behalf of Secretary Veneman the importance of the healthy forest initiative.

Last year was the second-worst fire season in modern history. About 7.2 million acres burned. It was also the most expensive fire season ever, with suppression efforts costing Federal taxpayers $1.6 billion. Before last year was over, tragically, 23 firefighters were dead, tens of thousands of people had fled their homes, and more than 2,000 buildings were destroyed.

Every year, catastrophic wildfires destroy wildlife and habitat; kill millions of trees; and pollute the air, making people sick, especially vulnerable populations such as children and the elderly. Wildfires sterilize the soil for years to come, and contribute to runoff that pollutes watersheds.

As natural resources professionals, you know that these fires are not happenstance; they are the culmination of a century of aggressive fire suppression, coupled with massive buildups of dense undergrowth, causing forest conditions to deteriorate to an unnatural state. Today, tree stands that once had fewer than a hundred trees per acre and provided important habitat to a variety of species are now crowded by a thousand trees per acre or more.

These conditions have made our forests weaker, more susceptible to insect and disease infestations, and less able to support diverse wildlife populations. They also have placed more than 190 million acres at imminent risk of catastrophic wildfire. Other problems include management practices that focus more on fire suppression rather than prevention and procedural red tape, appeals, and litigation.

Nearly a year ago, President Bush stood on a blackened hillside in Oregon and announced his Healthy Forests Initiative to improve the health of our nation’s forests and rangelands. Since then, the Administration has taken a series of actions to expedite high-priority fuel-reduction projects in our nation’s forests and rangelands. The primary goal of the projects is to reduce the fire danger.

The local communities strongly support these projects. Because of historic fires in the area, residents know the danger of wildfire.

The President has asked Congress to enact legislation that will let us do our work better, faster, and cheaper. The Healthy Forests Restoration Act has already passed the House of Representatives on a strong bipartisan vote of 256-170. The Senate must act quickly to pass the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, so we can act now, before more lives, property, and habitats and watersheds are destroyed.

To put it quite simply, we cannot afford another record fire season.


Conservation Goals, Not Programs

I would like to conclude by talking about one other goal NRCS has for the coming year, a goal that I think SWCS members can identify with strongly. That is to help farmers and ranchers and others take a more holistic approach to conservation, rather than focusing too much on specific farm bill programs.

Your membership represents quite an array of disciplines, as does the NRCS workforce. That is one of the reasons we have been such great partners over the years. So I don’t have to sell you on a holistic approach.

But with this tremendous investment in conservation coming out in the form of specific amounts for each program, the temptation is to go after the program dollars. Since the demand for these dollars exceeds the supply, landowners who think of themselves only as EQIP farmers or WHIP landowners or some other program-limited designation, will decrease their chances of reaching their overall conservation goals.

The same danger looms over the conservation professional. Our challenge is to get our customers to look at how their goals fit into the national and local priorities and then pursue a course of action that will get them closest to reaching their overall goals. Looking at goals rather than programs opens up more possibilities for partnering and more roads to success.

With streamlined program delivery, a strong technical base, and a holistic approach, we can get more conservation done on the ground than anyone ever dreamed was possible a few years ago. We can truly become catalysts for conservation.

Thank you. I’ll be happy to answer any questions.