Conservation Planning Made Easier

by Alan Boerger, Resource Conservationist
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Topeka, Kansas

When the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) was established in 1935, the agency’s primary task was the reduction of soil erosion. As the agency grew and evolved, conservation farm planning became the basis for all the actions that the SCS conducted. The plans were simple, straightforward, and were easy to comprehend by the producers. Perhaps the most important feature of the early farm plan was that the plan was voluntary. Even though early conservation plans were voluntary, most producers applied the plan practices in order to save the soil resources they had.

In the mid 1980’s, the Food Security Act of 1985 was written into law. When the law was passed, the way in which SCS developed farms plans changed the way producers viewed the purpose of the traditional conservation farm plan. In order for producers to remain eligible to receive farm program benefits, all land labeled as “Highly Erodible” was to have a conservation farm plan developed on it and all the plan practices applied by 1995. This particular law then made the conservation plan more of a regulatory tool instead of a voluntary one. However, most producers complied with the Food Security Act and implemented their farm plans.

As the 1990’s passed, the conservation farm plan became less attractive to producers because of the perception that the government was going to tell farmers what they could and could not do on their own land.

Now that most of the Food Security Act plans have been implemented, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is striving to turn the mandatory planning perception around to one that is, once again, more farmer friendly. However, the task is one that will require time and patience on the part of the public and NRCS. The environmental concerns of today will demand that conservation plans be more specific, detailed, flexible, have attainable objectives, and, most of all, be voluntary.

To do this, NRCS has implemented a planning strategy that will bring back our planning expertise and abilities. Through increased employee training, each NRCS planner will be certified to produce good, comprehensive farm plans. Furthermore, NRCS employees have been provided new conservation planning computer software to help in the development of conservation plans. The Customer Service Toolkit (CST) provides NRCS employees with a better tool to develop conservation farm plans faster, neater, and without maintaining big databases. Another new tool that NRCS is utilizing is ArcView. This particular computer tool allows NRCS employees to develop conservation plan maps. By using more up-to-date photography, the ArcView maps are more detailed and neater. Another added benefit of ArcView is that color can be used in the plan map. The ability to use color makes field boundaries, structural practices, range sites, and other details more identifiable and easier to locate.

The NRCS has always viewed our natural resources as important, and the use of conservation farm plans was the major tool we had to offer producers who wanted to maintain their resources. By utilizing the new planning tools, procedures, and planner certifications, NRCS is bringing back the idea that the conservation plan will be the basis for all the technical assistance the agency provides now and in the future.

For more information about conservation planning, please contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service or conservation district office located at your local county USDA Service Center.

For more information about NRCS programs, visit the Kansas NRCS web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

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Last Modified: 09/09/2008