2. Providing More Tools for the Wise Stewardship of the Land

USDA's Natural Resources and Environment mission area plays a vital role in the management and conservation of the Nation's land, natural resources, and natural heritage. The USDA Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service share responsibility for fostering sound stewardship on 75 percent of the country's total land area.

The phrase “Caring for the Land and Serving People” captures the spirit of the Forest Service mission in its management of public land. The Forest Service mission is to achieve quality land management under sustainable, multiple-use management concepts to meet the diverse needs of people. The Forest Service oversees the management of 191.6 million acres of public lands, made up of 155 forests and 20 national grasslands in 44 States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) mission, “to provide leadership and administer programs to help people conserve, improve, and sustain our natural resources and environment," provides the foundation for the conservation leadership role it has earned. For six decades the Natural Resources Conservation Service has worked side by side with landowners, conservation districts, State and local governments, and urban and rural partners to restore and enhance the American landscape. The agency provides direct technical assistance and conducts a broad range of programs to address farmers' and ranchers' natural resource concerns on millions of acres of private lands.

Although the programs of these agencies differ, both are defined by profound land and service ethics which guide their common mission: to promote diverse, healthy, and sustainable ecosystems by restoring and sustaining the integrity of soil, air, water, biological diversity, and ecological processes. By making resource management decisions in the context of the full system, the agencies ensure that products, values and services, and uses desired by people are produced in ways that sustain a healthy and productive Nation and environment.

Accomplishment Highlights

Farm Bill Tools
In 1997, USDA reconfirmed its commitment to locally led conservation--a process for local people, usually led by conservation districts, to assess their communities’ natural resource conditions and needs, set goals, identify programs and other resources to solve specific community problems, and measure their success. The locally led process was the key to effective use of the following 1996 Act programs on private lands throughout the country.

Environmental Quality Incentives
On March 10, 1997, USDA announced preliminary State funding allocations for USDA’s $200 million Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which helps farmers and ranchers address agriculture’s priority natural resource and environmental problems. In May, USDA published the final rule for implementing the program. During 1997, over 58,000 applications were received and over 23,000 contracts were accepted, totaling $171 million. The new program offers flexible, effective, and voluntary conservation programs for farmers and ranchers. It emphasizes State priority areas, including watersheds or geographic regions with special sensitivity or significant soil, water, or related natural resource concerns. Under EQIP, USDA can provide cost-share assistance to family-sized farms and ranches for up to 75 percent of the cost of environmental protection practices such as grassed waterways, filter strips, manure management facilities, capping abandoned wells, and wildlife habitat enhancement.

Wetlands Reserve Program
Under the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), more than 750 separate projects involving approximately 130,000 acres were voluntarily enrolled. The program provides for restoration and protection of wetlands and associated buffer lands under permanent easements, 30-year easements, or 10-year cost-share agreements. All WRP projects involve partnerships between USDA and private landowners.

Improving Wildlife Habitat
Implementation of the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program has begun to provide technical and cost-share assistance to landowners to develop and restore wildlife habitat. The program offers 5- to 10-year contracts, with a total cost-share amount not to exceed $10,000 per contract. A wide range of upland and wetland conservation practices are available.

Protecting Farmland
Under the Farmland Protection Program, USDA gave nearly $2 million to 10 States to help keep productive farmland in use. When the easement acquisitions are completed, 29 farms on 5,000 acres--with an estimated $18 million easement value--will be permanently protected from urban development.

Installing Conservation Buffers
In April, 1997, USDA officially launched the new National Conservation Buffer Initiative and committed to helping landowners install 2 million miles of conservation buffers by the year 2002. Agricultural producers and other landowners who install buffers can improve soil, air, and water quality; enhance wildlife habitat; restore biodiversity; and create scenic landscapes. Seven major agribusinesses pledged nearly $1 million total over the next 3 years to complement USDA’s efforts to promote buffers. About 90 agricultural and environmental groups are supporting this national initiative. To date, approximately 350,000 acres of buffers have been established using the Conservation Reserve Program’s continuous signup authority.

Preserving America’s Private Land
Early in 1997, the Natural Resources Conservation Service released America’s Private Land, a Geography of Hope, a new booklet that presents a conservation vision for the 21st century. This booklet is a call to renew America’s public commitment to conservation on private land. About 100,000 copies were distributed through a joint effort of USDA, other Federal agencies, conservation organizations, and the National Association of Conservation Districts.

Emergency Watershed Protection
Over $166 million in emergency threat-reduction assistance was provided to 25 States in 1997 in response to remnants of Hurricane Fran, floods of the Red River Valley, blizzards in Montana and the subsequent flooding in the Northwest, and destructive tornadoes in Arkansas and the Ohio River Valley States. Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program funds help local sponsors control threats to life and property by controlling erosion, reducing runoff, repairing levees, and removing critical stream obstructions. Under the pilot authority in the 1996 Farm Bill, $15 million in EWP funds will be utilized for voluntary floodplain easements to reduce long-term threats of flooding to agricultural land.

Taking Inventory of Our National Resources
A special National Resources Inventory, completed in 1997 and geared toward assessing the 1996 Farm Bill’s impacts on conservation, showed that although cropland acreage increased from 1995 to 1996 by about ½ million acres (acreage that is generally of lower quality and more vulnerable to erosion than existing cropland acreage), erosion rates remained steady and, in fact, decreased slightly on highly erodible land. This demonstrates that farmers are both maintaining existing conservation systems and applying conservation systems to land that is coming into production. Nevertheless, total erosion increased because the total pool of land in production was increased, including more erosive land.

Lake Tahoe Summit
USDA affirmed its commitment to ecosystem management and its role in caring for the national treasure of the Lake Tahoe Basin by sponsoring the Lake Tahoe Summit. The summit improved coordination among Federal agencies and with the States of California and Nevada, the Washoe Tribe, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, and other local units of government. New actions on water quality, transportation, forest management, and recreation and tourism have been initiated.

The USDA Forest Service will burn 1,000 acres of hazardous fuel, such as grass, brush, and fallen trees, annually to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, and it will treat another 2,000 acres by mechanical means. In addition, the Forest Service will perform maintenance and monitor conditions on 3,500 acres of environmentally sensitive and valuable lots adjacent to private homes and property, and it will acquire environmentally sensitive parcels of land in the Lake Tahoe Basin through the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

Urban and Community Forestry
Through the Urban and Community Forestry (UCF) Program, the Forest Service contributes directly to the improvement, management, and expansion of forest resources in cities and towns throughout the United States. Through the Urban Resources Partnership, the Forest Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, along with four other Federal agencies and other public agencies and community organizations, work to improve the natural environment while addressing social and economic issues in urban areas.

The Forest Service, in cooperation with USDA and other Federal and local agencies, launched the Urban Environmental Resource Initiative and created a plan of action for the District of Columbia to assist neighborhoods in improving their environment. Through the initiative, citizens, employees from Federal and local government, and neighborhood residents planted 408 trees, taught 1,600 children aquatic ecology and fishing how-to’s, and established an environmental laboratory with computers at an elementary school. One hundred thirty-four employees contributed 490 hours and 385 individuals contributed 3,060 hours on 6 projects.

FS--a Leader in Ecosystem Management
In 1997, the Forest Service helped lead the implementation of the President’s Northwest Forest Plan; accomplished salvage sales to improve forest health and reduce fire danger; completed endangered species consultations; and produced ecological assessments of the Sierra Nevada, Columbia River Basin, and southern Appalachians. It coordinated the above efforts with numerous other Federal land management and regulatory agencies. The Forest Service completed development of the “decision protocol” process that reduced by 20 to 40 percent the time needed to complete National Environmental Policy Act requirements. In 1997, six forest plan revisions were completed. The agency is now working with a Committee of Scientists to review the implementing rules for the National Forest Management Act.

Silver Screen Award
The television documentary On the Fireline, produced by the Forest Service in partnership with State foresters, won a Silver Screen award at the International U.S. Film Festival in 1997. The film, which was shown by more than 60 major television stations, shows relationships between fires and healthy forests, illustrates the benefits of prescribed burning, and describes what homeowners can do to protect themselves against wildfires in the wildland-urban interface.

Partnerships Expand Wildlife Programs
The Forest Service joined with State wildlife agencies, conservation organizations, and other groups last year to supplement appropriated funds by $28 million for a combined total of $44 million for habitat improvement projects for wildlife, fish, and plants on national forest lands. This program, called the Challenge Cost-Share Program, included 1,832 partners and 2,157 projects in 1996. Since 1986, the Challenge Cost-Share Program has grown from $2 million to its current level of $44 million.

Recreation Fees Improve Service
The Forest Service collected over $8.8 million from 40 recreation fee demonstration test projects on national forests and grasslands in the first year of the fee program. Most of the funds collected are returned to the sites where collected, to improve services and facilities for our visitors. About 859 million people visited the national forests and grasslands in 1997. This is a 45-percent increase in just 10 years. The agency expects the number of people who visit the national forests and grasslands to exceed 1 billion by the year 2000.