Reconstructing the national conservation program

Excerpt

THE Soil Conservation Service has served its public more effectively than most federal agencies through the years because of a uniquely free-flowing system of internal advocacy. Knowledge, creativity, and the judgment that creates sound decisions pass both upward and downward through carefully constructed lines of communication that parallel the primary chain of authority. Prominent in these lines is the client landowner/manager, through conservation districts and state agencies.

The system rests on the premise that conservation needs and solutions are as unique and specific as the sites on which they occur, although they share elements of broader principles. Problem solving arises out of local judgment, combining the practical experience and knowledge of clients, district officials, and local SCS personnel in a partnership of common purpose. Solutions are evaluated and circulated, as applicable, by technical administrators close enough to this experience to make sound generalizations. Then, by natural selection, problems assume their proper size relative to other problems, and solutions rise or fall on the basis of their effectiveness.

The national program consists of proven approaches, applied everywhere they fit, but with a specificity that is responsive and flexible. Still, throughout the system, judgment is a collective product; the flow …