The 8,700 employees of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service have been named People of the Year in Service to American Agriculture by “Progressive Farmer” magazine. Calling APHIS “agriculture’s crucial line of defense” in a world of pests, disease, and terror, the article quotes APHIS Administrator Bobby Acord, John Clifford, associate deputy administrator of the agency’s National Animal Health Policy and Programs, and Jane Levy, a senior staff officer in the agency’s Port Operations Staff, who handles calls from port-of-entry inspectors seeking guidance on APHIS procedures for handling food products coming into the U.S. This is the first time in the magazine’s 117-year history that it has honored a federal agency for service. For a copy of the article go to http://www.progressivefarmer.com. --Illustration by Ralph A. Mark, Jr.; Courtesy of “Progressive Farmer”

“Record-breaking” is the phrase Natural Resources Conservation Service staffers are using to describe the year that NRCS’s Earth Team volunteers had during FY 2002. That’s because Earth Team volunteers contributed more than one million hours of service to conservation activities nationally.

According to Michele Eginoire, NRCS’s national volunteer coordinator based in Ankeny, Iowa, the National Earth Team Status Report for FY 2002 showed a 19 percent increase--over the previous year’s figures--in the number of volunteers, a 17 percent increase in the number of volunteer hours, and a five percent increase in the number of NRCS offices relying on volunteer services.

In addition, she pointed out that, for FY 2002, the total value of volunteer time was more than $17 million, based on the $16.05 per hour rate established by nationally recognized volunteer organizations. “The total amount which NRCS invested nationally in the Earth Team is approximately $199,000,” Eginoire said. “So this gives NRCS a return on its investment equal to about $86 for every $1 spent.”

“Since the Earth Team began in 1982,” she added, “the number of volunteers has gone from 327 to more than 38,000, and the number of hours donated has jumped from 29,100 to 1,089,100.”

Norm Klopfenstein, NRCS’s Earth Team marketing specialist based at the agency’s state office in Columbia, Mo., explained that the Earth Team is NRCS’s volunteer support system for those who are interested in conserving America’s natural resources, while at the same time helping to keep federal costs down.

The volunteers do “hands-on” work on the land--such as work on conservation projects including streambank restoration and erosion control; clean-up of rivers, streams, and lakes; providing conservation-related technical assistance to landowners; and conducting conservation education, both indoors and outdoors, for students. “While volunteers in other federal programs--such as those helping the National Park Service--work on public lands, Earth Team volunteers work almost solely on private lands,” he pointed out.

Volunteers also work in NRCS offices to provide clerical assistance, write computer programs and organize computer data, and prepare newsletters.

“Our Earth Team Volunteer Program is a typical example of the President’s USA Freedom Corps,” Eginoire added. •
— Fred Jacobs