Fiscal Year 2007 

Accomplishments 

Helping People Help the Land 

NRCS achieves its mission, 

“Helping People Help the Land,” 

through the delivery of technical 

and financial assistance. 

The primary services provided by

NRCS field office staffs are 

assistance in developing 

conservation plans and in applying 

and maintaining the conservation 

practices called for in those plans. 

NRCS also is responsible for 

providing science-based resource 

data, technical tools, and 

information needed for good 

stewardship.

Comprehensive conservation plans 

are the first step in managing land 

sustainably. In fiscal year (FY) 

2007, NRCS helped people 

develop conservation plans for 

45.4 million acres of land. 

In FY 2007, NRCS helped

producers and other land 

managers implement conservation 

practices and management on 47.4 

million acres. These practices will 

result in maintaining and enhancing 

soil quality, water quality, water 

management and conservation, 

wildlife habitat, and air quality. 

 Figure 1. Land where NRCS helped people develop or revise conservation 

plans in FY 2007. 

 Figure 2. Land where NRCS helped people implement conservation practices 

in FY 2007. 
 NRCS Mission: Helping People Help the Land 

Vision: 

Productive Lands – 

Healthy Environment 

The landscape that Americans want provides both a productive agricultural 

sector and a high quality environment. Productive use of privately owned

cropland, rangeland, pastureland, and forest land is essential to the Nation’s 

security and the health and well-being of its citizens. These lands form the 

foundation of a substantial and vibrant agricultural economy that provides food, 

fiber, forest products, and energy for the Nation. They also produce 

environmental benefits that people need – clean and abundant water, clean air 

and healthy ecosystems. 

Mission Goals NRCS mission goals articulate in broad terms the benefits the Nation expects the 

Agency’s activities and programs to help people achieve: 

• High quality, productive soils 

• Clean and abundant water 

• Healthy plant and animal communities 

In addition to meeting measurable targets related to these goals, NRCS is also 

developing technical tools and helping people work toward related concerns: 

• Clean air 

• Adequate energy supply

• Preservation of working farms and ranches 

NRCS Products 

and Services 

NRCS provides products and services to ensure a healthy and productive land 

that sustains food and fiber production, protects watersheds and natural 

systems, enhances the environment, and improves urban and rural landscapes. 

NRCS has five business lines: conservation planning and technical consultation, 

conservation implementation, natural resource inventory and assessment, 

natural resource technology transfer, and financial assistance. Figure 3 below

shows the staff time devoted to each business line in FY 2007. The products 

and services delivered through these business lines are essential to resource 

managers seeking to be good stewards of natural resources. The following

pages show key accomplishments in each business line in FY 2007. 

Figure 3. NRCS staff time in FY 

2007, by agency business line. 

Source: NRCS CIS report 1.3. 

Time for each business line 

includes necessary administrative 

and management activities to

support the front line employees as 

well as time spent directly in

producing and delivering the 

products and services included in 

the line. 

2 
 NRCS Mission: Helping People Help the Land 

Conservation 

Implementation 

NRCS helps customers install conservation practices and systems on their land 

that meet established technical standards and specifications and result in

improved treatment of natural resources. In FY 2007, NRCS helped producers 

and others implement practices to make progress toward each of the agency’s 

three foundation mission goals. 

Goal: High Quality,

Productive Soils

• Assisted land users in applying conservation practices on 15.9 million acres

of cropland. Nearly 14.1 million acres of the cropland acres were treated to

improve soil quality.

Goal: Clean and

Abundant Water

• Assisted livestock producers with the completion of all needed practices on

more than 4,400 Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans (CNMP). 

• Assisted producers in applying conservation practices to improve water 

quality on more than 32.4 million acres. 

• Assisted producers in conserving water and improving irrigation efficiency on 

more than 2 million acres. 

• Rehabilitated or removed 13 dams to ensure stability of the structure and 

reduce risk posed by aging infrastructure. 

• Completed 564 long-term contracts (all measures installed) for water quality 

improvement. 

Goal: Healthy Plant and 

Animal Communities 

• Assisted land users in applying conservation practices on 28.9 million acres

of grazing and forest land to improve the resource base. 

• Assisted land users with wildlife management practices resulting in improved

fish and wildlife habitat quality on more than 14 million acres. 

• Assisted in creating, restoring or enhancing 285,487 wetland acres. 

Key Performance 

Measures

Table 1 shows measures on which NRCS reports quarterly as part of the USDA 

response to the President’s initiative on budget and performance integration. 

The targets shown were set in the President’s budget for FY 2007. After the 

Continuing Appropriations Resolution for 2007 was passed, agency leadership 

adjusted the targets to reflect funding availability. Performance is shown for the 

major programs; additional acres were treated with other programs. 

Table 1: Performance on key measures, FY 2005-2007 

Goal Performance Measure Program 

FY 2005 

Actual

FY 2006 

Actual

FY 2007 

Target 

FY 2007 

Actual

High Quality, CTA 6.0 6.4 6.0 7.3

Productive Soils

Cropland with conservation applied 

to improve soil quality, million acres EQIP 2.2 3.4 5.0 5.3

Clean and CTA 2,421 2,269 1,900 1,911

Abundant Water

Comprehensive Nutrient 

Management Plans applied, number EQIP 2,032 2,774 3,000 2,490

CTA 7.5 11.8 8.0 14.2

Healthy Plant and

Animal

Communities

Grazing and forest land with 

conservation applied to protect and 

improve the resource base, million 

acres EQIP 8.0 12.2 13.0 16.5

Wetlands created, restored or CTA 53,502 65,344 51,300 62,093

enhanced, acres WRP 180,360 181,979 156,000 149,326

CRP 50,937 61,280 58,500 68,835

Source: NRCS Performance Results System 

CTA Conservation Technical Assistance; EQIP Environmental Quality Incentives Program; Wetlands Reserve Program; 

CRP Conservation Reserve Program 

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 NRCS Mission: Helping People Help the Land 

Conservation 

Planning and Technical 

Consultation 

NRCS provides data, information, and technical expertise that helps people

collect and analyze information to identify natural resource problems and 

opportunities, clarify their objectives, and formulate and evaluate alternatives. 

NRCS encourages land managers to develop plans that address more than one 

resource goal. Planning assistance to individuals is accomplished primarily 

through the Conservation Technical Assistance program. 

Planning Planning assistance provided in FY 2007 enabled people to develop: 

• Conservation plans on more than 45.4 million acres, including: 

Cropland 15.4 million acres 

Grazing Land 26.5 million acres 

Forest Land 1.4 million acres 

• 5,205 Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans on livestock operations. 

• 912 watershed or area-wide conservation plans. Of these, 680 were

developed under the Resources Conservation & Development Program. 

• 3 Watershed Inventories and Analysis Studies, 1 Floodplain Management

Study, and 7 Small Watershed Plans (PL-566) were developed under the 

Watershed Surveys and Planning program. 

Technical Consultation Data on planning assistance include only assistance that resulted in

development of a plan recorded in the NRCS National Conservation Plan 

Database. In addition, employees provide technical assistance that involves a 

single transaction for services and is not expected to result in a formal plan

recorded in agency files. Examples include tasks such as helping to conduct an 

inventory of natural resources of a site or responding to requests for technical 

information or other technical products. These tasks generally last from 15 

minutes to several hours each. In FY 2007, NRCS employees reported 

spending almost 200 staff years of time providing such assistance and recorded

more than 798,000 instances of brief technical assistance. 

Figure 4. Conservation plans developed or updated, FY 2002-2007. 

4 
 NRCS Mission: Helping People Help the Land 

Natural Resource 

Inventory and 

Assessment 

NRCS assesses, acquires, develops, interprets, analyzes, and delivers natural 

resource data and information to enable knowledge-based natural resource 

planning and decision making at all landscape scales. 

Soil Survey and 

Snow Survey 

In FY 2007, NRCS: 

• Published 105 legacy surveys covering about 50 million acres on the Web. 

These are available on the Web at: http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/ 

• Mapped or updated soil surveys for 36.4 million acres. 

• Digitized 238 soil surveys to national digitizing standards. The surveys 

cover 36.4 million acres. A total of 2,968 digitized surveys are now

available. This is part of an initiative to digitize all modern soil surveys. 

• Issued 12,141 water supply forecasts by the Snow Survey and Water 

Supply Forecasting program.

Assessing Conservation 

Effects 

Work continued on the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) in the 

form of a workshop on managing agricultural landscapes for environmental 

quality, completion of the NRI-CEAP Cropland Survey, publication of a CEAP 

bibliography on the effects of conservation practices on wetlands, and release of 

a literature synthesis on the effects of conservation practices on fish and wildlife. 

Rapid Watershed 

Assessment 

In FY 2007, NRCS continued to test the Rapid Watershed Assessment approach 

as a methodology for local decision makers to set priorities and determine the 

best actions to achieve their goals. Rapid Watershed Assessments (RWA) have 

been funded in 297 watersheds through FY 2006 and FY 2007 Cooperative 

Conservation Partnership Initiative grants (CCPI). In FY 2006, CCPI funded 134 

assessments on 8-digit hydrologic unit code watersheds. Of those, 12 were

funded to complete more detailed watershed plans using information compiled 

through the RWA process. In FY 2007, $2 million was used to fund 163 RWAs 

on various sized watersheds to determine the most efficient scale for watershed 

planning. There are 2,264 8-digit hydrologic unit code watersheds in the United 

States. NRCS, in partnership with other Federal agencies, is developing a

national system that will delineate, number, and name hydrologic units at the 10- 

and 12-digit scale. 

Natural Resource 

Technology Transfer 

NRCS develops, documents, and distributes a wide array of technology 

pertaining to resource assessment, conservation planning, and conservation 

system installation and evaluation, including computer applications, standards 

and guidance documents, criteria, and plant materials.

Plant Materials In FY 2007, the Plant Materials Centers (PMC): 

• Released 21 new plant materials to commercial growers. 

• Prepared and transferred 459 plant materials technical documents to 

customers. 

• Established a new PMC in Fallon, Nevada.

Tools and Standards New or revised technology NRCS released in FY 2007 included: 

• An Energy Estimator to look at energy cost variables such as heat, light, and 

ventilation in poultry, swine and dairy housing. 

• A computer program and user’s guide to assist engineers, conservationists, 

and engineering technicians in the design of ponds and structures. 

5 
 NRCS Mission: Helping People Help the Land 

• Stream Restoration Design Handbook, which includes 1,700 pages of 

detailed design guidance and encourages locally-led, public involvement in 

restoration planning and implementation. 

• Updated standards for about 12 percent of the agency’s conservation 

practices, including creation of two new practice standards. 

Conservation Innovation 

Grants 

To accelerate the development and transfer of new technology, NRCS awarded 

competitive grants to eligible entities, including State and local agencies, nongovernmental organizations, Tribes, or individuals. These Conservation 

Innovation Grants utilize EQIP funds. 

Technical Service 

Providers 

An aspect of technology transfer that has increased under the FY 2002 Farm Bill 

is certification of non-Federal technical service providers (TSPs) to assist 

participants of agency programs. NRCS has established processes to certify

individuals and to enter into agreements with governmental and nongovernmental entities to provide services. In FY 2007, NRCS signed 

agreements with 296 newly certified individual TSPs, and re-certified 119 

individual TSPs. This brings the total available to the public to more than 1,300 

individual TSPs and 113 businesses. Practices implemented with the technical 

assistance of TSPs in FY 2007 included pest management, nutrient 

management, upland wildlife habitat management, conservation crop rotation, 

comprehensive nutrient management plans, and livestock waste storage 

facilities. 

Financial Assistance NRCS provides financial assistance to encourage the adoption of land treatment 

practices that have been proven to provide significant public benefits. Financial 

assistance is awarded to participants who voluntarily enter into contracts, 

easements, and agreements to conserve natural resources. The 2002 Farm Bill 

significantly increased the financial assistance available through programs 

NRCS administers. Financial assistance includes cost share and incentive

payments and stewardship payments. NRCS also makes payments to acquire

easements to protect environmentally important land. 

Cost Share/ Incentive

Payments 

Cost-share payments reimburse program participants for part of the expense of 

installing one or more conservation practices as agreed through a program 

contract. Incentive payments encourage participants to perform management 

practices that they would not initiate without assistance. Table 2 shows FY 2007 

program funds available for obligation to program participants. Table 3 shows

number of contacts and acres included in contracts funded in FY 2007. 

Easements NRCS funds conservation easements as a mechanism to protect sensitive lands 

and vanishing landscapes. In exchange for a payment, a landowner sells 

specific rights or interests to conserve and protect the natural resource, while 

maintaining ownership, general control of the property and certain other rights 

defined by specific program provisions. Each easement ensures the natural 

resource is protected for the long-term or in perpetuity. Table 4 shows the 

cumulative easements acquired through NRCS programs since the beginning of 

each program. 

6 
 NRCS Mission: Helping People Help the Land 

Table 2. Financial assistance funds appropriated or apportioned in FY 2007, all programs 

Farm Bill Programs 

($ in

1,000s) Discretionary Programs 

($ in

1,000s) 

Environmental Quality Incentives Program 812,023 Flood Prevention (PL 534) 1,589 

Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program 32,461 Watershed Protection (PL 566) 1,951 

Wetlands Reserve Program 255,000 Emergency Watershed Protection 8,910 

Watershed Rehabilitation 14,284

Healthy Forest Reserve Program 2,349 

Table 3. Cost share, incentive, and easement contracts, FY 2007 

Cost share, incentives 

restoration Easements 

Program Number Acres Number Acres 

Environmental Quality Incentives Program 41,700 17,100,000 

Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program 2,100 350,000 

Wetlands Reserve Program 123 17,544 503 77,182 

Healthy Forest Reserve Program 3 196,972 16 1,276 

Grassland Reserve Program 14 59,663 

Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program 47,061 

Table 4. Cumulative acres under easement 

Program Acres 

Wetlands Reserve Program 1,582,3201

Grassland Reserve Program 114,063 

Healthy Forest Reserve Program 3,152 

Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program 386,6742

Emergency Watershed Protection Program 212,672 

1 WRP easements perfected. 2 Easements acquired.

Agency Workforce Most NRCS employees work in field offices across the Nation. Employees in 

2,785 field offices provide customers a wide variety of technical and financial 

assistance through the agency’s five business lines. Field office staff work sideby-side with employees of the local conservation districts and State conservation 

agencies. These offices function as clearinghouses for natural resource 

information, helping people gain access to knowledge and assistance available 

from local, State, regional, and national sources. In 419 other field offices,

employees provide more specialized services, for example the rural community

development assistance provided through Resource Conservation and 

Development offices. 

Employees in the field are supported by NRCS specialists who provide technical 

and administrative support, conduct natural resource inventories, and develop

new conservation technologies, ensuring that the Agency maintains the ability to 

provide consistently accurate information and high quality technical services. 

Over the period 2002-2007, as NRCS responsibilities and workload have 

increased, the agency workforce has decreased slightly (Figure 5.) 

7 
 NRCS Mission: Helping People Help the Land 

Figure 5. NRCS workforce, in FTEs, 

 FY 2002 - 2007. 

Source: NRCS CIS reports 

Cooperative Action Conservation of private lands depends on the efforts of many individuals, groups 

and governmental entities working together. NRCS supports the achievement of 

local, State, regional, and national conservation goals through partnerships with 

State conservation agencies, local conservation districts, resource conservation 

and development councils, tribal governments, community groups and others. 

Overarching 

Strategies 

In FY 2007, NRCS continued to focus on initiatives that expand cooperative 

efforts to address water quality issues with a market-based approach. Examples 

include: 

• Partnering with Colorado State University, Agricultural Research Service and 

Environmental Protection Agency to develop a new tool to determine available 

nitrogen for trade in emerging water quality markets. The Nitrogen Trading Tool 

(NTT) is a web-based model that measures the changes in nitrogen losses based 

on changed management practices. In FY 2007, the NTT prototype was 

completed. 

• Developing a new reference for understanding environmental credit trading. 

The NRCS Environmental Credit Trading Handbook is to be available for use by

NRCS staff and partners. 

• Conducting an evaluation of the potential for water quality credit trading in the 

Chesapeake Bay region and determining the appropriate Federal role. Provided 

assistance to Maryland Department of Agriculture in developing a Nonpoint 

Source Credit Trading Policy to be utilized in a Chesapeake Bay Water Quality

Credit Trading Pilot project. The project is funded through a 2007 NRCS 

Conservation Innovation Grant. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of 

race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family status. 

(Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for 

communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at 

(202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). 

To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 1400 

Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal 

opportunity provider and employer. 

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