Excerpt
Thomas Jefferson extolled “agricultural societies as a means of spreading good stewardship of the land.” SWCS shows how right he was.
I want to put the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) in the context of our NRCS Strategic Plan, the 2007 farm bill, and three key messages I am taking to my team, our conservation partners, and our customers as I do the agency's business.
While there is a lot happening in conservation (I am continually surprised by how broad the interest is), three themes seem intertwined wherever I have traveled
1. Are NRCS and the conservation community as a whole ready for changes and challenges just over the horizon?
2. Some of our programs are hard to access, apply for, implement; some are redundant, some unnecessarily complex; our standards and practices do not always seem reasonable or to fit the situation.
3. Are we able to demonstrate where tax dollars go, and can we quantify our practices?
These are important issues and will not be quickly resolved. But I believe in turning “challenges” onto their heads so they become “opportunities to excel.” As such, I have reframed those concerns as drivers …
Footnotes
Arlen L. Lancaster, chief of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
- Copyright 2007 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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