The role and capacity of conservation districts in resource management

Pete Nowak

Excerpt

AT issue is the relationship between soil and water con-servation districts and the land users they serve. Current trends in natural resource conservation programs en-courage the growth of a dependent relationship between the land user and the conservation district. That is, the land user or farmer is becoming more and more dependent on the district for the definition of a problem, recommendations on the nature of remedial practices, development of plans, and approval for participation in various state and federal programs. Districts have become the “local offices” for state and federal resource management agencies.

This commonly accepted function could be contrasted with that in which the district enables the development of independent stewards of the environment. The implications of the dependency issue prompt several questions about the fundamental nature and function of conservation districts.

The “real” resource management problem

What is today's most serious problem in natural resource management? It's not excessive soil erosion and the associated problems of lost soil productivity and …

Footnotes

Pete Nowak is a professor and soil and water conservation specialist, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 53706. This article is based on his presentation at the 49th annual conference of the Indiana Soil and Water Conservation Districts, December 3, 1991.
Copyright 1992 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society

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