INTERVIEW WITH KEVIN DONOHO DISTRICT SOIL CONSERVATIONIST NRCS: Soil Conservation in Action

Kevin Donoho District Conservationist Almost every county has a district conservationist, or in neighboring county Helps coordinate conservation needs of the county with Soil and Water conservation district Match the needs of farm owner, land owner, ect. with the practices within the NRCS Involves managing and implementing practices while providing cost shares for farmers or land owners, via contracts

History of NRCS Been around for 75 years Create in Response to the Dust Bowl Originally Soil Erosion Service Changed Quickly At first, Soil Conservation Service, but in 1995 broadened scope Create in Response to the Dust Bowl m/2009/09/dust- bowl1.jpg&imgrefurl= =457&w=700&sz=80&tbnid=ZyoJMu0Vi4YJiM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=140&prev=/ima ges%3Fq%3Ddust%2Bbowl&zoom=1&q=dust+bowl&usg=__K1Ag7EuACTfi- BPqKSRBLJHCMUg=&sa=X&ei=J0D8TO7cJ8upnQfZvozICg&ved=0CB4Q9QEwA A

What Does the NRCS do?? Soil Conservation is backbone of agency Many jobs within agency from Engineer to Soil Scientist to Soil Conservationist Equip Program-Environmental Quality Incentives Program- Big NRCS program – designed to provide incentives and cost shares to encourage produces to implement practices on crop land, everything from nutrient management, no-till, strip-till, drainage management, contour cropping– basically all practices, AND COVER CROPS!!! Provide the technical service for CRP program, Farm Service Agency does the contracts Difference between Equip and CRP, Equip does not provide provide annual payments

Main Conservation Goals Listen to needs of farmers Match their plans for implementing practices with local soil and water conservation district Involves addressing all natural resource issues- air quality, water quality, soil erosion, soil quality Protect prime farmland from Urban Sprawl- protection and wise use Protect Wildlife habitat- WHIP program Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program Wetland Reserve Program- also addresses wildlife Figure out farmer primary goals and move on from there, don’t want to think for the farmer

Easily Adapted Practices Grass Waterways #1 Reason- Soil Erosion Area drives the practices RI- contour farming, terraces

Practices Not as Easily Adopted Strip Till- deep-place N, P, K and plant corn crop over exact same strips- because they are injected won’t run-off- improve water quality- no broadcast Drainage water management – modifying you tile drainage system- only use drainage while growing crop- when crop is not there put in structures within tile system that have surface access point where you can change point that water can get too– stop logs 2-3 weeks before you plant in spring take logs out- when crop is harvested put gates back in

Research Need a lot of research showing that practices work before farmers implement things!!!!!!

Educating Farmers Contractors meetings- land improvement contractors, ones that actually build things- update them on new practices- remind them what is required for meat and potatoes practices Newsletters, lists Nothing gets more attention then something running bull-dozer, scraper, tile machine– word of mouth District hosts annual meeting every year-usually in Jan.- opportunity to say here is what we did during the past year, lay out guidelines for where they are going next year- county board, congressmen, producers, contractors, other agency partners

Conclusion Agriculture is backbone of society We have a huge responsibility to produce food and fiber but also producers are primary environmentalists QUESTIONS ??????