TECHNICAL SOIL SERVICES: FY UPDATE Michael Robotham National Leader for TSS October 9, 2014

Overview of presentation  FY2014 TSS activities report  Example products  TSS Reporting for FY2015  Business planning for FY2015  National areas of interest  Resources

FY2014 Technical Soil Services Activities (and Instances) Report

FY2014 Activities Report  Report summarize instances of TSS assistance provided as reported using the NASIS-based reporting system  Reporting is no longer voluntary for SSD- affiliated staff  Reporting is and will remain voluntary for state/area-affiliated staff  Activities report is very useful at the national level to document great work done in the field to support the agency

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Other 2014 Highlights  TSS Course revised and taught in July/August – many thanks to cadre  Need one-two paragraph local “highlights” for annual national TSS report  Send to Mike by October 17  Highlight great example outreach product: Connecticut Soils Program fact sheet  Developed by Debbie Surabian (SSS for CT and RI), her staff and SSR 12 staff 7

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FY2015 TSS Reporting

New in FY2015  Switch from current “instances” metric to “hours” in FY2015.  Changes in NASIS TSS tables and structure in NASIS 6.3 (next slides)  Trying to streamline process  Updated guidance documents to reflect NASIS 6.3 changes  Will be posted on sharepoint and sent to SSSs and SSRDs

Key NASIS 6.2/6.3 changes  Addition of “hours” field to main TSS table  Added “State”, “County” and “MLRA” fields to main TSS table  Can still use “area overlap” table for other areas of local interest  Updated choice lists to reflect 2014 Farm Bill programs  Addition of “TSS text” and “TSS site” overlap tables

But I’m NASIS-phobic, do you have anything for me?  “TSS reporting assistant” spreadsheet  Developed by Kevin Godsey and others  Records up to 50 TSS entries  Formatted for NASIS import (using “Import Excel File” feature)  Available on TSS program Sharepoint and by request

But what if I forget …  YouTube video tutorial: atch?v=s0yr2Vduur8  Updated “helpful hints” document available on the TSS Sharepoint

Reporting questions?

Moving forward in FY2015

Business Plans  States / Areas are STRONGLY encouraged to develop a TSS Business plan for FY2015  Identify this year’s projected activities  What needs to be done?  When does it need to be done?  What are the resources required?  Cooperative effort  Tie into State business plan  Coordinate with SSR business plan(s)

Business plans continued  Very important communication and planning tool  Work with SSRD(s) to identify assistance needs and available resources  Allows for management flexibility from both State/Area and SSR to get the work done  Tailor plan to meet your local management needs and objectives  PIA example posted on TSS Sharepoint Site  Please feel free to post additional examples

International Year of Soils (IYS) 18 More information to follow …

Ongoing national activities  SOIL HEALTH  Toolkit upgrades leading to CDSI  Soils “job approval” authority  National models and databases (and some potential new ones)  CEAP and other assessment tools  Conservation compliance changes in 2014 Farm Bill  Lots of uncertainty – will keep you informed

FY2015 National TSS Program Goals  Complete revisions to the TSSH  Develop and implement “communication strategy”  How do we find out what is important to you?  How do we “get the word out” from national?  How do we better exchange information, ideas, tools, best practices etc.  Get soils “back in the discussion” at the national level – Soil Health, CDSI, CEAP, Conservation Planning, etc.  We need your help!

Resources

The people: contact information (who you gonna call?) Michael Robotham – NL for TSS All and sundry issues Linda Scheffe soil health, conservation planning, CDSI, models Lenore Vasilas wetlands, compliance, soils JAA, training

Other Resources  TSS Handbook  Overview of TSS  Links to policies and other supporting docs  ail/national/soils/?cid=nrcs142p2_  TSS Sharepoint  Lots of resources – plan is to continue to expand – check out “shared documents”  -team.usda.gov/sites/NRCS _SSRA/ssd/tss/default.aspx 23

Questions?