Dave White: Greetings. I'm Dave White, Chief of
the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
We've been an agency of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture since 1935, and were
originally known as the Soil Conservation Service.
I'm speaking with you from my office in Washington,
D.C. - the historic office where our first chief, the
legendary soil scientist Hugh Hammond Bennett,
built this organization, an organization which has
served this nation so well in the past 75 years.
Bennett championed voluntary, science-based,
locally-led conservation on private lands,
delivered by a skilled field staff, working arm
in arm with soil conservation district
people across this nation.
This network of conservationists has
proven critical to implementing the array of
conservation programs enacted by Congress over time.
Since Bennett's day, every chief of this great
agency has worked from this office.
I'm humbled to return to my desk here each morning
as the fourteenth chief to lead our agency in
"helping people help the land."
Since more than two-thirds of the land in the U.S.
is in private hands, that's a mission we take
very seriously.
It's a mission Bennett formulated as a young soil
surveyor and defined more fully when millions of acres of
prime topsoil were placed at risk in the early 20th century:
Bennett: Over-planting in past boom years has been a
big factor in needless ruin of at least a
hundred million acres by wind and water erosion.
Announcer: From Washington come U.S.
Department of Agriculture soil experts.
Partially damaged land is terraced and contoured.
From grasslands, sod is stripped and transplanted
to barren ground.
New hope to the farmers of the dustbowl.
Dave White: Thanks to Bennett's commitment and the
dedication of our predecessors in the Soil
Conservation Service and NRCS, soil conservation is today
a central tenet of our nation's agricultural policy.
It's at the heart of our vision for a productive,
sustainable agricultural sector that's in balance
with a healthy environment. We believe
the productive use of crop land, grazing
land, and forest land is essential to the nation's
security and to our citizens' health and well being.
In addition to forming the basis of a vibrant
agricultural economy that provides food, fiber,
feed, forest products and energy to us, these lands
also generate environmental benefits
that people need, such as high-quality soils; clean
and abundant water; clean air, and healthy plant and
animal communities.
For 75 years, we have helped America's agricultural
producers to be good stewards of natural resources.
We provide customers with conservation planning and
other forms of technical and financial assistance.
We compile the National Resources Inventory and
other assessments, and make technology available for
use by farmers and ranchers in their daily operations.
We also administer an array of programs that conserve
our lands or promote excellence in conservation.
Through collaboration with districts, states and
local businesses, we also install flood control
structures, rehabilitate dams, establish floodplain
easements and restore floodplains.
Although not as well known as some of our other
activities, this aspect of our work has been going on
for more than five decades, and was recently
reinvigorated with passage of the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
In addition to creating jobs in some of the
nation's most depressed areas, these projects are
improving community safety and health, mitigating
floods, controlling sediment and enhancing
fish and wildlife habitat.
And they are very much in our Agency's tradition of
helping people solve local problems while
also addressing national priorities.
Throughout our history, Congress has periodically
enacted legislation focusing on particular
geographic regions or resource concerns.
Past mandates include the very successful Great
Plains Conservation Program and the Rural
Clean Water Program.
A new initiative centers now on the Chesapeake Bay.
And we are also taking action to address the
Mississippi River Basin Watersheds, coral reefs
and the sage grouse.
As a result of Hugh Hammond Bennett's
dispersed staffing structure, giving us
offices in all 50 states and some territories, we
have retained the flexibility to meet
changing needs-including some international requirements.
Many NRCS employees have volunteered to serve as
agricultural advisors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Employees selected for these year-long details
serve side-by-side with their colleagues from the
U.S. military, the Departments of Defense and State,
and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
They work to improve agricultural productivity,
promote sustainable natural resource
management, create rural employment and improve
family incomes and well being.
Because an estimated 80 percent of Afghans depend
on agriculture for their livelihoods, the projects
represent survival in many areas of the country,
in both the near and long-terms.
Greg Schlenz: Tash Okur, allright!
Dave White: Here at home, we face pressing
challenges, too.
They include eliminating agriculture's dependence on
fossil fuels and managing threats posed by climate
change, invasive species and the loss of open space.
Also looking ahead, the United Nations says our
world food output must grow by 70 percent over
the next four decades to feed a projected extra 2.3
billion people by the year 2050.
Much of that increased output will have to come
from producers in the United States.
We have always pursued agricultural production
and conservation as compatible national goals
throughout our history.
So, as we begin our next 75 years of service, how
American producers work together to feed all those
people-and do it sustainably-is very much
on our minds at NRCS.
With science-based conservation technical
assistance and a focus on sustainable outcomes, we
know we can help private land owners and managers
meet these challenges head on.
And we know we are well positioned to help them
take advantage of opportunities in ecosystem
service markets and renewable fuels production.
This is an exciting time to be a conservationist.
We have big challenges, but we also have
extraordinary programmatic and technical tools-and
the best cadre of employees and partners we
have ever had-to keep helping people help the land.
In our 75th year, we are breathing new life into
the legacy bequeathed to us by Hugh Hammond Bennett
and the other conservation pioneers.
As Bennett said, "If we take care of the land, it
will take care of us."
We hope you will join us throughout 2010 as we
celebrate 75 years of conservation contributions
to this nation.
Announcer: To learn more about the Natural
Resources Conservation Service, visit this website.