Natural Resources

Conservation Service

Accomplishments Report

FY 2001

Natural Resources Conservation Service

United States Department of Agriculture

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, science-based conservation technical assistance; partnerships;

incentive-based 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 2001, 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 longterm 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, technical and financial

assistance, resource assessment, and

technology development and transfer.

What We Achieved

Highlights of the accomplishments for

fiscal year 2001 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—

• Plan and apply resource management systems on 9.5 million acres

of cropland.

• Apply 4 million acres of crop

residue management.

• Apply resource management

systems on 11.3 million acres of

grazing land and prescribed grazing

on 18.6 million acres.

• Protect 3.5 million acres of cropland from excessive wind and water

erosion and apply erosion control

measures on 9.3 million acres of

land resulting in reducing soil loss

by 257 million tons.

Conservation systems

are designed to meet

the needs of the land

and landowners.
• Apply irrigation water management

systems that resulted in 1.2 million

acres of improved water management and conserved 7.5 million

acre-inches of water.

• Apply forest stand improvement

(weeding and thinning) on 400,000

acres.

• Establish trees and shrubs on

525,000 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 524,000 acres to

protect water quality and provide

wildlife habitat.

• Created, restored, or enhanced

wetlands on 362,000 acres.

• Helped landowners apply wildlife

habitat management—for wetlands

or upland areas—on 11.7 million

acres.

• Planned or applied 10,500 waste

management systems, including

waste storage structures, treatment

lagoons, composting facilities, and

roof runoff management.

• Helped agricultural producers apply

nutrient management on 5.4

million acres.

• Helped producers apply pest

management on 5.4 million acres.

• Entered into 57 cooperative

agreements with state and local

governments and nongovernmental

organizations to protect an estimated 34,900 acres of farmland

from conversion to nonagricultural

uses through the Farmland Protection Program.

• Applied erosion control measures

on 70,700 acres of urban and builtup land.

• Completed 3,043 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.

Above: Sound resource information and

technology enable producers to manage

animal waste properly.

Right: Conservation buffers reduce soil erosion,

improve air and water quality, reduce flooding,

and enhance fish and wildlife habitat.

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:

• Realized a total of $1.62 billion

worth of benefits from small

watershed projects.

• Issued 9,000 water supply forecasts

for Federal, state, and local water

resource planning purposes to

69,000 water users and managers.

• Completed construction on 51 flood

protection structures.

• Prepared 10 watershed infrastructure

rehabilitation plans.

• Applied conservation systems to

address flooding concerns on 3.1

million acres.

• Applied conservation systems to

address water supply concerns on

8.6 million acres.
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.

• Mapped or updated 24.4 million

acres of soils.

• Provided 139 soil surveys in digital

format.

• Released 24 new conservation plants

for commercial or private use and

evaluated 424 plant materials

studies.

• Provided data to 1.2 million

customers through the PLANTS

database website.

• Earned an American Customer

Satisfaction Index rating of 81 from

a sample of landowners who received

conservation technical assistance

(CTA) last year. The average score

for all government agencies in the

survey was 71. Customers gave

NRCS an extremely high rating of

90 on trust, which is measured by

whether the customer will (1)

become an advocate for CTA and

(2) request services or information

from the agency in the future.

More Information

Additional information on the agency’s

programs and services can be found in

the NRCS Strategic Plan for 2000-

2005—a comprehensive roadmap that

describes goals, objectives, guiding

principles, baselines, and performance

targets. The Strategic Plan is available

on the web at:

www.nhq.nrcs.usda.gov/SPA

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 2.4 million

farmers, ranchers, and other

customers.

• Provided assistance to a total of

306,000 minority customers.

• Assisted 5,300 minority customers

apply conservation systems.

• Assisted 2,000 minority customers

with an NRCS conservation costshare program.

Left: NRCS provides conservation

assistance nationwide in rural

and urban communities.

Right: Wetlands improve water

quality, enhance wildlife habitat,

reduce soil erosion, reduce

flooding, and improve water

supply.