# Presentation: 491013

## Next Farm BillReflections and Projections

- NOPBNRCSE 2005
- Little Rock, Arkansas

## SWCS Activity

- 2001 Report—
- Recommendations for reform of conservation provisions in 2002 farm bill.
- Based on input from regional workshops.
- 2004 Report—
- Evaluation of implementation of 2002 conservation provisions.
- Recommendations to enhance performance of conservation title.
-  Now—
- Co-chair farm and ranch stewardship workgroup-130 plus organizations.
- Seeking common ground for 2007 farm bill.

## 2004 SWCS Report

## 2007 Farm BillBig Four Conservation Issues

- Conservation Title
- Money.
- Performance—“Precision Conservation”.
- Technical Infrastructure.
- Commodity Title
- “Greening” crop subsidies.

## Money2002 Farm Bill

## Money2002 versus 2007

## Money 2007

- Everything versus Social Security, Medicare, Iraq, Homeland Security, tax cuts.
- Conservation versus crop subsidies.
- Conservation program versus conservation program.
- 2007 farm bill spend less than 2002 farm bill in total.

## Performance:Environmental Regeneration

- Resource conservation, 1935 to 1985.
- Enhance productivity of agriculture.
- Sustain the resource base agriculture depends on.
- Environmental management, 1985...
- Soil, water, & air quality.
- Fish and wildlife habitat.
- Ecological goods and services.

## Priorities1935 to 1985

- Productivity

- Resource Base

- Environment

## Priorities2002...

- Productivity

- Resource Base

- Environment

## PerformanceHistoric Opportunity

| Program | 2004 | 2005 | 2006? |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Land Management |   |   |   |
| Conservation Operations | $853  | $837  | $840  |
| Environmental Quality Incentives Program | $975  | $1,017  | $1,017  |
| Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program | $42  | $47  | $43  |
| Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program | $112  | $112  | $74  |
| Ground and Surface Water Conservation | $51  | $51  | $51  |
| Small Watershed Rehabilitation | $30  | $27  | $32  |
| Conservation Security Program | $41  | $202  | $259  |
| Subtotal | $2,104  | $2,293  | $2,315  |
| Land Restoration  |   |   |   |
| Conservation Reserve Program | $1,850  | $1,942  | $2,021  |
| Wetlands Reserve Program | $285  | $275  | $275  |
| Grassland Reserve Program | $57  | $128  | $0  |
| TOTAL | $4,296  | $4,638  | $4,611  |

## Performance Historic Opportunity

- Repair key landscape functions—land retirement and restoration, $2.3 billion.
- Hydrology: the amount, timing, and pathway water reaches streams.
- Wetlands, stream channels, habitat.
- Improve farm & ranch management—working land conservation, $2.3 billion.
- Nutrient, water, soil, grazing, crop management.
- Pollution pathways: erosion, runoff, drainage.

## PerformanceEnvironmental Regeneration

- Environmental regeneration and resource conservation are:
- Compatible.
- Complementary.
- But different...
- Watershed/landscape scale versus farm/ranch scale.
- Joint versus individual effort.
- Targeting, targeting, targeting.

## Precision ConservationKey to Environmental Management

- Precision conservation:
- The right practices,
- In the right places,
- At the right time, and
- At the right scale.
- Applies to field, farm, and watershed.
- Rapidly advancing science and technology.

## Precision ConservationBig Opportunity – Big Challenge

- Best reason for professionals to be in charge of programs.
- Quandary: Even heroic efforts by award-winning landowners may not pay off.
- Way forward:
- Balanced portfolio.
- Cooperative conservation projects—”back to the future”.
- Emphasis on technical services.

## Precision ConservationA Balanced Portfolio

## Precision ConservationCooperative Conservation Projects

- Remember the watershed approach?
- Makes precision conservation technically AND politically feasible.
- Back to our roots as a profession.
- Maximize our “value added.”

## Technical ServicesKey to Precision Conservation

- Know how is most important factor driving precision conservation.
- Know how at field, farm, and watershed scales.
- Dense and diverse infrastructure required to deliver know-how: right time, right place, right people, right form.

## Technical Services: Step Ahead in 2002

## Technical Services: Step Ahead in 2002Technical Service Providers

## Technical Services: 2007

- Secure 2002 gains.
- Need Blueprint:
- Coordinated investment plan—to build infrastructure suitable for environmental regeneration.
- Couple CCC funding with strategic increases in discretionary funds for CTA, research, and education.
- Allocate resources to federal, state, local government, NGOs, and private sector based on ability to deliver.

## Greening Commodity Programs

- Conventional commodity subsidies in trouble.
- Most producers don’t benefit.
- Top heavy distribution.
- Trade rulings and negotiations.
- Competition for funding.
- Green Payments as an alternative?

## Greening Commodity Programs

- 2002: CSP small step toward green payments.
- 2007: Big questions.
- Income support versus environmental performance?
- Replace commodity programs?
- Replace conservation programs?
- Expand conservation compliance?

## 2007 Agenda

- Hang on to the conservation title money.
- Pragmatic conservation title reform to improve environmental performance.
- Build technical infrastructure to inform environmental management.
- “Green” the commodity title.

## The Soil and Water Conservation Society 

- (SWCS) is a nonprofit scientific and educational organizationfounded in 1943that serves
- as an advocate for professional resource conservationists and environmental managers
- and
- for science-based conservation and environmental
- practice, programs, and policy.
- SWCS has over 7,000 members around the world.
- Our mission is to foster the science and art
- of natural resource conservation and environmental
- management on working landthe land used to
- produce food, fiber, and other services
- that improve the quality of life people experience
- in rural and urban communities.
- We pursue our mission through a combination of research, education,
- and advocacy.
- You can learn more about SWCS and our projects
- by visiting our website:  www.swcs.org