[Agriculture Fact Book 98]
As USDA's lead private lands conservation agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides technical assistance and administers a wide range of programs to solve the Nation's natural resource problems.
The well-being of our Nation depends on healthy, productive natural resources and their sustainable use. Just as soil, water, and habitat are interrelated, the programs that address these resources are interrelated, and programs that help one resource also benefit others. If you stop erosion, for example, you enhance soil productivity and protect water and air quality. Improving the environment enhances the economic future of communities throughout the United States.
The mission of NRCS is to provide national leadership, using a cooperative partnership approach, to help people conserve, improve, and sustain their natural resources and environment.
For more than 6 decades, NRCS employees have worked side-by-side with landowners, conservation districts, Resource Conservation and Development Councils, State and local governments, and urban and rural partners to restore and enhance the American landscape. The agency helps landowners and communities take a comprehensive approach in conservation planning, working toward an understanding of how all natural resources--soil, water, air, plants, animals--relate to each other and to humans. The agency works to solve the natural resource challenges on the Nation's private lands--reducing soil erosion, improving soil and rangeland health, protecting water quality and supply, conserving wetlands, and providing fish and wildlife habitat.
Most NRCS employees serve in USDA's network of local, county-based offices, including those in Puerto Rico and the Pacific Basin. The rest are at State, regional, and national offices, providing technology, policy, and administrative support. They serve all people who live and work on the land. Nearly three-fourths of the agency's technical assistance goes to helping farmers and ranchers develop conservation systems uniquely suited to their land and their ways of doing business.
The agency helps rural and urban communities curb erosion, conserve and protect water, and solve other resource problems. American Indian tribes, Alaska Natives, Pacific Islanders, and other native groups work with NRCS on a variety of initiatives that include resource inventories and the adaptation of conservation programs to fit the special needs of their people and their land. Also, countries around the globe seek NRCS advice on building their own conservation delivery systems and in coping with severe natural resource problems.
NRCS provides conservation technical assistance (CTA) to improve and conserve natural resources. This assistance is based on voluntary local landowner cooperation.
CTA is the foundation upon which NRCS delivers its services--through local conservation districts--to private landowners, communities, and others in their care of natural resources. CTA is the intellectual capital of the agency; it is made up of people who are well-trained and competent in soils and other physical and biological sciences, and who have the interpersonal skills and knowledge of local conditions to work with private landowners in the stewardship of our natural resources.
CTA provides the infrastructure through which the agency is able to respond to a multitude of needs from natural resource disasters to complex, site-specific natural resource problems. CTA is the means by which this Nation is able to voluntarily bring about land stewardship that improves our soil, water, wildlife, and air resources while providing for sustainable agricultural production. The investments in CTA return significant benefits to the American public--from an improved environment and quality of life to a safe and abundant food supply.
Following is an overview of NRCS programs:
Wetlands Reserve Program
The Wetlands Reserve Program is a voluntary program to restore wetlands. Participating landowners can establish conservation easements of either permanent or 30-year duration, or can enter into restoration cost-share agreements where no easement is involved. In exchange for establishing a permanent easement, the landowner receives payment up to the agricultural value of the land, plus 100 percent of the restoration costs for restoring the wetland. The 30-year easement payment is 75 percent of what would be provided for a permanent easement on the same site, plus 75 percent of the restoration cost. The voluntary agreements are for a minimum 10-year duration and provide for 75 percent of the cost of restoring the involved wetlands.
Conservation Farm Option
The Conservation Farm Option was authorized as a pilot program for eligible producers of wheat, feed grains, cotton, and rice. The purpose of the program is to address the conservation of soil, water, and related resources; water quality; wetlands; wildlife habitat; and other resources. Producers who have contract acreage under production flexibility contracts are given an option of a 10-year contract with a single annual payment equivalent to the amount of the combined payments under the Conservation Reserve Program, the Wetlands Reserve Program, and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
Environmental Quality Incentives Program
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program works primarily in locally identified priority areas where there are significant natural resource concerns, such as soil erosion, water quality and quantity, wildlife habitat, wetlands, and forest and grazing lands. Priority is given to areas where State or local governments offer financial, technical, or educational assistance, and to areas where agricultural improvements will help meet water quality objectives. Activities must be carried out according to a conservation plan. The program offers financial, educational, and technical help to install or implement structural, vegetative, and management practices called for in 5- to 10-year contracts. Cost sharing may pay up to 75 percent of the costs of certain conservation practices. Nationally, half of the funding for this program is targeted to livestock- related natural resource concerns and the remainder to other significant conservation priorities.
Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program
The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program provides financial incentives to develop habitat for fish and wildlife on private lands. Participants agree to implement a wildlife habitat development plan, and USDA agrees to provide cost-share assistance for the initial implementation of wildlife habitat development practices. USDA and program participants enter into 5- to 10-year cost-share agreements for wildlife habitat development.
Farmland Protection Program
The Farmland Protection Program provides funds to State, tribal, or local government entities to help purchase development rights to keep productive farmland in agricultural use. Working through their existing programs, USDA joins with State, tribal, or local governments to acquire conservation easements or other interests from landowners. USDA provides up to 50 percent of the cost of purchasing the easements. To qualify, farmland must be part of a pending offer from a State, tribe, or local farmland protection program; be privately owned; have a conservation plan; be large enough to sustain agricultural production; be accessible to markets for what the land produces; have adequate infrastructure and agricultural support services; and have surrounding parcels of land that can support long-term agricultural production.
Conservation of Private Grazing Land
Conservation of Private Grazing Land will ensure that technical, educational, and related assistance is provided to those who own private grazing lands. The Nation’s more than 600 million acres of private grazing lands produce food and fiber, hold and carry important water resources, and offer wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities.
Soil Surveys
NRCS conducts soil surveys cooperatively with other Federal agencies, land-grant universities, State agencies, and local units of government. Soil surveys provide the public with local information on the uses and capabilities of their soil resource. Soil surveys are based on scientific analysis and classification of the soils, and are used to determine land capabilities and conservation treatment needs. The published soil survey for a county or designated area includes maps and interpretations with explanatory information that is the foundation of resource policy, planning, and decisionmaking for Federal, State, county, and local community programs.
Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasts
NRCS field staff collect snow information through a network of about 600 Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL) and 1,000 traditional snow courses to provide 11 Western States and Alaska with water supply forecasts. The data are collected, assembled, and analyzed to make about 4,000 annual water supply forecasts, which provide estimates of available annual yield, spring runoff, and summer stream flow. Water supply forecasts are used by individuals, organizations, and State and Federal agencies to make decisions relating to agricultural production, fish and wildlife management, flood control, recreation, power generation, and water quality management. The National Weather Service presently includes the snow information in its river level forecasts.
Plant Materials Centers
NRCS employees at 26 Plant Materials Centers assemble, test, and encourage increased plant propagation and usefulness of plant species for biomass production, carbon sequestration, erosion reduction, wetland restoration, water quality improvement, streambank and riparian area protection, coastal dune stabilization, and for meeting other special conservation treatment needs. The work is carried out cooperatively with State and Federal agencies, commercial businesses, and seed and nursery associations. After species are proven, they are released to the private sector for commercial production. In 1997, NRCS developed cultivars that were turned over to others to produce plant stock that generated more than $175 million in revenue for private sector nurseries and seed companies.
Small Watersheds Projects
The Small Watershed Program works through local government sponsors and helps participants solve natural resource and related economic problems on a specific watershed. Project purposes include watershed protection, flood prevention, erosion and sediment control, water supply, water quality, fish and wildlife habitat enhancement, wetlands creation and restoration, and public recreation in watersheds of 250,000 or fewer acres. Both technical and financial assistance are available.
Emergency Watershed Protection
The Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program is designed to reduce threats to life and property in the wake of natural disasters. It provides technical and cost-sharing assistance. Assistance includes establishing vegetative cover; developing gully control; installing streambank protection devices; removing debris and sediment; and stabilizing levees, channels, and gullies. In subsequent storms, EWP projects protect homes, businesses, highways, and public facilities from further damage. Floodplain easements under EWP may be purchased to help prevent future losses due to natural disasters.
Watershed Operations
Under the Flood Control Act of 1944, NRCS is authorized to administer watershed works of improvement. Flood prevention operations include planning and installing works of improvement and land treatment measures for flood prevention; for the conservation, development, utilization, and disposal of water; and for the reduction of sedimentation and erosion damages. This may also include the development of recreational facilities and the improvement of fish and wildlife habitat. Activities are authorized in 11 specific flood prevention projects covering about 35 million acres in 11 States.
River Basin Surveys and Investigations
NRCS cooperates with other Federal, State, and local agencies in conducting river basin surveys and investigations, flood hazard analysis, and flood plain management assistance to aid in developing coordinated water resource programs, including their guiding principles and procedures. Cooperative river basin studies are made up of agricultural, rural, and upstream water and land resources to identify resource problems and determine corrective actions needed. These surveys address a variety of natural resource concerns, including water quality improvement, opportunities for water conservation, wetland and water storage capacity, agricultural drought problems, rural development, municipal and industrial water needs, upstream flood damages, and water needs for fish, wildlife, and forest-based industries. Flood plain management assistance includes the identification of flood hazards and the location and use of wetlands. NRCS represents USDA on river basin regional entities and River Basin Interagency Committees for coordination among Federal Departments and States.
Forestry Incentives Program
The Forestry Incentives Program supports good forest management practices on privately owned, nonindustrial forest land nationwide. The program is designed to benefit the environment while meeting future demand for wood products. Eligible practices are tree planting, timber stand improvement, site preparation for natural regeneration, and related activities. The program is available in counties designated by a Forest Service survey of eligible private timber acreage.
Resource Conservation and Development Program
The Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Program provides a framework for local people to join together to improve their community’s economy, environment, and living standards. RC&D areas are locally organized, sponsored, and directed. USDA provides technical and financial assistance and helps sponsor secure funding and services from Federal, State, and local sources. The major emphases are environmental conservation and rural development. Currently there are more than 300 RC&D areas covering more than 75 percent of the United States. Each year, these locally organized and directed areas create thousands of new jobs, protect thousands of miles of water bodies, conserve hundreds of thousands of acres of land, and improve the quality of life in hundreds of communities.
RC&D areas are run by a council of volunteers who serve without pay; currently more than 20,000 people donate their time and talents to improve their communities through this program. USDA provides a coordinator to work full-time with each area to help them implement their objectives.
National Resources Inventory
Every 5 years, NRCS develops an inventory of the condition and trends of natural resources on non-Federal land. The "National Resources Inventory," or NRI, contains the most comprehensive and statistically reliable data of its kind in the world. It measures trends in soil erosion by water and wind, wetland losses, prime farmland acreage, irrigation, and habitat and conservation treatment at national, regional, State, and sub-State levels.
National Conservation Buffer Initiative
In April 1997, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman announced a new public-private partnership called the National Conservation Buffer Initiative. The goal is to help landowners install 2 million miles of conservation buffers by the year 2002.
Conservation buffers are areas or strips of land maintained in permanent vegetation and designed to intercept pollutants. Buffers can be installed along streams or in uplands-- within crop fields, at the edge of crop fields, or outside the margins of a field.
The National Conservation Buffer Initiative is a multi-year effort led by NRCS, in cooperation with other USDA agencies, State conservation agencies, conservation districts, agribusinesses, and agricultural and environmental organizations. Six national agricultural corporations have pledged nearly $1 million over the next 3 years to complement USDA’s efforts to promote conservation buffers.
To date, approximately 595,000 acres--or nearly 165,280 miles--of buffers have been established under the Conservation Reserve Program continuous sign-up. Agricultural producers and other landowners who install buffers can improve soil, air, and water quality; enhance wildlife habitat; restore biodiversity; and create scenic landscapes.
International Programs
NRCS helps improve the management and conservation of natural resources globally. Participation in collaborative efforts with other countries results in benefits to the United States. During FY 1997, NRCS specialists completed 490 assignments in 47 countries. The objectives of the assignments were to provide short- and long-term technical assistance and leadership for the development of natural resource conservation programs and projects, and to exchange conservation technology with countries that face soil and water conservation issues similar to those in this country.
NRCS provided opportunities for approximately 210 foreign nationals from more than 25 countries to gain a better understanding of natural resource conservation activities by observing and discussing conservation programs in the United States.
Agricultural Air Quality
The 1996 Farm Bill established a Task Force on Agricultural Air Quality to make recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture with regard to the scientific basis for agriculture's impact on air quality. This task force is to strengthen and coordinate USDA air quality research efforts to determine the extent to which agricultural activities contribute to air pollution and to identify cost-effective ways in which the agricultural industry can improve air quality. The task force is also charged with ensuring that data quality and interpretation are sound. The Farm Bill requires that policy recommendations made by any Federal agency with respect to agricultural air quality issues must be based on sound scientific findings, subject to peer review, and must consider economic feasibility.
Backyard Conservation Campaign
NRCS has developed a new Backyard Conservation campaign to inform urban, suburban, and rural residents of the good conservation work being done by farmers and ranchers. At the same time, it encourages them to adopt miniature versions of the same practices in their own backyards, such as composting, mulching, tree planting, nutrient management, and water conservation.
Farmers and ranchers are already making progress in natural resource conservation by protecting and restoring wetlands, enhancing wildlife habitat, and curbing soil erosion. There are nearly 2 billion acres of land in the United States. Most of that land, 1.4 billion acres, is managed by farmers and ranchers. More than 92 million acres, however, are privately developed and much of it is tended by homeowners. These homeowners can join the conservation tradition of farmers and ranchers right in their own backyards to curb water pollution and enhance wildlife habitat.
For more information on this campaign or on other agency programs, visit the NRCS web site at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov
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