# Presentation: 785675

## Conservation System Guides National Environmental Policy WorkshopJune 15, 2005

- Anthony BurnsTechnology SpecialistEast National Technology Support CenterGreensboro, NC

## Conservation System Guides

- What are they?
- How are we using them?
- Where are we going with them?
- Why is all of this so confusing?

## Common Resource Area

- A subdivision of a MLRA, where resource concerns, problems, and treatment needs are similar. Landscape conditions, soil, climate, human considerations, and other natural resource information is used to determine the geographical boundaries of the common resource area.

## Conservation System Guide

- A CSG is a collection of information replacing the conservation system guidance found in Section III of the FOTG, with additional information concerning conservation system effects.

## Conservation System

- A combination of conservation practices and resource management for the treatment of soil, water, air, plant, and/or animal resource concerns.

## Conservation System GuidesandConservation Systems

- Relationship of Conservation System Guides to Conservation Systems
- Linked to Conservation Toolkit, CSGs provide key information regarding planning alternatives
- GSG information can be linked to other applications such as Performance

## Integration

**Field Office Business Tools**

## Field Operations to Performance Outcomes

- Customer Contact

- Technical Assistance                Provided

- Conservation Journal, WebTCAS, Toolkit, Protracts, PRS

- PHYSICAL EFFECT exported from _**CRAs,**_ _**Conservation System Guides**_

- OUTPUTS (Ex. Tons of sediment Planned to be reduced)

- PERFORMANCE MEASURES
- (Ex. Reduced soil erosion on  ___ acres of working lands)

- OUTCOMES (Ex. By 2007, reduce sedimentation to avoid $___ of on-site and
- off-site damages.)

- NRI-CEAP utilizes information to refine outcome models

## Role of CSGs?

- Primary Purpose – Planning Tool
- Save data input time
- Provide conservation system information to employees, partners, and public
- Training tool
- Secondary Purpose – To Provide for automatic collection of impact data

## Conservation System Guides

## Conservation Systems

## Resource Concerns

- and
- Conservation Impacts

## Conservation Impacts

## Conservation Impacts

## Status

- 1350 CRAs
- 18,200 Conservation System Guides
- 5900 Cropland
- 2800 Pasture
- 2000 Grazed Range
- 2000 Wildlife
- 1400 Headquarters

## Current Status

- 35,000 Conservation Systems
- 31000 RMS
-   3900 Progressive

## National Conservation Planning Database

## National Conservation Planning Database

- Conservation plans:	                        620,683
- Conservation plan land units: 	  3,886,465
- Geospatial planning land units:        762,656
- Conservation practice records: 	 10,960,951
- Contracts: 				        17,064
- NCPD as of 5/13/05

## Issues

- No magic number of CSs or CSGs.
- Use of automated impact data reporting,Is “typical” average good enough?
- Reasonable uniformity between states.
- Emphasize CSGs as a starting point for on-site conservation planning which requires a decision support tool linking practices to resource concerns.

## Issues

- 79 Resource Concerns of which 45 are non-measurable.
- Improve our Quality Criteria
- meaningful, measurable, manageable

## Data Integrity Issues

- Duplicate names
- Primary resource concern addressed in both the CSG and the CS
- Threshold and baseline values
- Ensure that CSGs and CSs have the same resource concerns
- Update CSs to a RMS level

## Future

- More intelligent system of building the relationship between systems, resource concerns and conservation effects.
- CRA Revision
- Integration of Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) Integration and Conservation Practice Physical Effects (CPPE)

## Thank You