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Kansas NRCS Announces County Field Office Closings Proposal

Salina, Kansas, May 23, 2007—Today, Harold L. Klaege, State Conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Kansas, announced he is proposing to close nine county field offices (FOs) and consolidate operations with neighboring county FOs to more efficiently and effectively manage operations while meeting a declining budget.  NRCS is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Proposed NRCS Field Office Consolidations

The following are the NRCS field office consolidations.

  • Chase County FO (Cottonwood Falls) will be consolidated with Lyon County FO (Emporia).
  • Comanche County FO (Coldwater) will be consolidated with Barber County FO (Medicine Lodge).
  • Geary County FO (Junction City) will be consolidated with Riley County FO (Manhattan).
  • Gove County FO (Gove) will be consolidated with Logan County FO (Oakley).
  • Johnson County FO (Olathe) will be consolidated with Miami County FO (Paola).
  • Leavenworth County FO (Leavenworth) will be consolidated with Jefferson County FO (Oskaloosa).
  • Morton County FO (Elkhart) will be consolidated with Stevens County FO (Hugoton).
  • Wabaunsee County FO (Alma) will be consolidated with Pottawatomie County FO (Westmoreland) and will be relocated to Wamego along with the Farm Service Agency office.
  • Woodson County FO (Yates Center) will be consolidated with Wilson County FO (Fredonia).

Timeline for Office Consolidation

Before consolidation can take place, the National Food and Agriculture Council must approve the proposal.  Following its approval, no county FOs could be closed for 120 days, so it would be hard to start consolidation much before October 1, 2007, according to Klaege.

In July 2006, Klaege announced to the NRCS employees and county conservation district boards affected by the consolidation, and then the public, that a proposal for county FO consolidations had been developed because of forthcoming budget constraints.

Even though NRCS offices will consolidate, the county conservation districts in counties where NRCS is closing a county FO have indicated they are committed to maintaining a conservation office, according to Klaege.  Through a partnership effort, NRCS employees will make regular visits to these district offices to provide technical assistance to producers as well as to the local conservation district.

Dollars Working Smarter

“Conservation workload is not a limiting factor in Kansas,” said Klaege.  “Kansas producers are conservation minded and want to put conservation on the ground.”

“The limiting factor,” said Klaege, “is a sufficient staff to handle the workload and by managing the county FOs a little differently, we can make the dollars work smarter for our customers by putting staff in locations with the heaviest workloads.”

Mobile Office Technology

“It is hard to move bricks and mortar,” said Klaege, “but we started a pilot project this year that uses mobile offices so our field staff can go where the workload is.  Mobility allows our staff to meet with a farmer or rancher on the land and develop a conservation plan on-site."

Currently, 15 employees are assigned pickups equipped with portable tablet computers, scanners, printers, cell phones, and global positioning satellite receivers.  With the latest technology, NRCS employees are able to provide immediate access to natural resource data, such as soils, range sites, aerial photography, and Field Office Technical Guide information.

NRCS staff, with the producer, can develop a plan, discuss it, make changes, print it, and get it signed on the spot.

“This technology,” said Klaege, “is providing flexibility for our employees and enabling them to provide more technical assistance on the land.”

Visit your local NRCS county FOs to learn more about natural resources conservation.  The county FO is located at your local USDA Service Center (listed in the telephone book under United States Government or on the internet at offices.usda.gov). More information is also available on the Kansas Web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

Last Modified: 06/27/2008