Natural Resources Conservation Service

United States Department of Agriculture

Natural Resources

Conservation Service

Accomplishments Report

FY 2002

The Natural Resources Conservation Service provides leadership

in a partnership effort to help people conserve, maintain, and

improve our natural resources and environment.
What We Do

The Natural Resources Conservation

Service (NRCS) is the primary

Federal agency that works with 

private landowners to help them 

protect their natural resources. The

agency emphasizes voluntary, sciencebased conservation technical 

assistance; partnerships; incentivebased programs; and cooperative

problem solving at the community

level. The strength of NRCS is its

workforce—some 12,000 individuals

working side by side with many 

partners to help set conservation

goals, work with people on the land,

and provide services. These partners

include conservation districts, state

conservation agencies, resource 

conservation and development 

councils, and tribes. Local conservation districts—about 3,000 in all—

are an important part of the conservation delivery system that is critical to

natural resource accomplishments

that benefit all Americans.

Strategic Goals

In fiscal year 2002, the agency continued its commitment to help 

individuals, communities, units of

government, and tribes make 

decisions about managing their lands

and resources for productivity and

long-term use. NRCS helped rural

and urban communities curb erosion,

conserve and protect water, enhance

fish and wildlife habitat, and address

other natural resource issues.

Conservation accomplishments were

achieved under four strategic goals:

• Enhance natural resource productivity to enable a strong agricultural and natural resource sector.

• Reduce unintended adverse effects

of natural resource development

and use to ensure a high-quality

environment.

• Reduce risks from drought and

flooding to protect individual and

community health and safety.

• Deliver high-quality services to

the public to enable natural

resource stewardship.

NRCS identified objectives and 

performance measurements for each

goal. The work of the agency is

accomplished through conservation

planning and application, using 

technical assistance and financial

incentives.

What We Achieved

Highlights of the accomplishments

for fiscal year 2002 illustrate that 

conservation is the work of many—

no one person or group can do it

alone. The Nation’s conservation

efforts on private land ensure a

healthy and productive land—

sustaining food and fiber production,

protecting watersheds and natural 

systems, enhancing the environment,

and improving urban and rural 

landscapes.

Goal 1: Enhance natural resource

productivity.

NRCS identified four objectives to

address resource concerns that 

challenge continued productivity of

privately owned agricultural lands:

—Maintain, restore, and enhance

cropland productivity.

—Maintain, restore, and enhance 

irrigated land.

—Maintain, restore, and enhance

grazing land productivity.

—Maintain, restore, and enhance 

forest land productivity.

Accomplishments:

NRCS helped landowners—

• Apply resource management 

systems on 9.6 million acres of

cropland.

• Apply resource management 

systems on 12.9 million acres of

grazing land.

• Apply erosion control measures on

7.1 million acres of cultivated

cropland resulting in reducing soil

loss by 68.3 million tons.

• Improve irrigation water management on 1.9 million acres and

conserved 6.1 million acre-inches

of water. 

Conservation systems

are designed to meet

the needs of the land

and landowners.
• Apply forest stand improvement

(weeding and thinning) on

397,000 acres. 

• Establish trees and shrubs on

483,000 acres.

Goal 2: Reduce unintended adverse

effects of natural resource development and use.

NRCS identified five objectives to

address the most pressing concerns

affecting environmental quality of

rural and urban landscapes:

—Protect farmland from conversion

to nonagricultural uses.

—Promote sound urban and rural

community development.

—Protect water and air resources

from agricultural nonpoint sources of

impairment.

—Enhance animal feeding operations

to protect the environment.

—Maintain, restore, or enhance 

wetland ecosystems and fish and

wildlife habitat.

Accomplishments:

• Helped landowners put conservation buffers on 581,000 acres to

protect water quality and provide

wildlife habitat.

• Created, restored, or enhanced

wetlands on 376,000 acres. 

• Helped landowners apply wildlife

habitat management as a primary

or secondary purpose on 

12.5 million acres.

• Developed 5,200 comprehensive

nutrient management plans and

applied 3,350 plans.

• Helped agricultural producers

apply nutrient management on 

5.5 million acres. 

• Helped producers apply pest 

management on 5.2 million acres. 

• Entered into 89 cooperative 

agreements with state and local

governments and nongovernmental organizations to protect an 

estimated 66,000 acres of farmland

from conversion to nonagricultural

uses through the Farmland

Protection Program.

• Applied erosion control measures

on 92,000 acres of urban and

built-up land.

• Completed 4,145 resource conservation and development (RC&D)

projects that improve the quality

of life—including social, economic, and environmental concerns—

in local communities across the

Nation.

Goal 3: Reduce risks from drought

and flooding.

NRCS identified two objectives to

help landowners and land managers

apply conservation systems to address

the impacts of water shortages and

flooding.

—Protect upstream watersheds from

flood risk.

—Protect watersheds from the effects

of chronic water shortages and risks

from drought.

Accomplishments:

• Issued 11,411 water supply 

forecasts for Federal, state, and

local water resource planning 

purposes to 157,000 water users

and managers.

• Completed construction on 79

flood protection structures. 

• Prepared 18 watershed infrastructure rehabilitation plans and 

rehabilitated 5 flood prevention

structures.

• Applied conservation systems to

address flooding concerns on 4.5

million acres.

• Applied conservation systems to

address water supply concerns on

8.5 million acres. 

Above and right: Sound resource

information and technology enable

producers to make wise land use

decisions.
Goal 4: Deliver high quality services

to the public.

NRCS identified three objectives to

address the delivery of conservation

services that lead to good natural

resource stewardship.

—Deliver services fairly and 

equitably.

—Strengthen the conservation 

delivery system.

—Ensure timely, science-based 

information and technologies.

Accomplishments:

• Provided assistance to more than

3.1 million farmers, ranchers, and

other customers.

• Provided assistance to a total of

265,000 female and minority 

customers.

• Established a field office on the

Red Lake Indian Reservation in

Minnesota.

• Mapped or updated 22.6 million

acres of soils.

• Provided 288 soil surveys in digital

format. 

• Released 29 new conservation

plants for commercial or private

use and evaluated 444 plant 

materials studies. 

• Provided data to 1.8 million 

customers through the PLANTS

database website.

• Achieved a record year for the

Earth Team volunteer program

with more than one million hours

being donated, a 19 percent

increase in the number of volunteers, a 17 percent increase in the

number of volunteer hours and a 5

percent increase in the number of

NRCS offices using volunteers.

More Information

Additional information on the

agency’s programs and services can be

found on the Web at

www.nrcs.usda.gov. Specific 

information on NRCS’ Integrated

Accountability System that brings

together information about strategic

planning, cost accounting, workforce

analysis, performance plans, and

other factors is on the Web at:

www.nrcs.usda.gov/about/spa/

accountabilityindex.html. 

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 326W, Whitten Building, 14th

and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-

9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an

equal opportunity provider and employer.

Right: NRCS provides conservation

assistance nationwide to a diverse

population in rural and urban 

communities.

Left: Snow survey and water supply 

forecasting are valuable tools for reducing

the damage from floods and drought.