A panel of conservation leaders told senators Tuesday that as the Natural Resources Conservation Service sees cutbacks in staffing under the Trump administration, partnerships with outside organizations will be key to ensuring farmers have access to technical assistance.

At a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on conservation programs, panelists said conservation districts and other organizations can help fill gaps left by staffing reductions and ensure landowners get the help and advice they need when enrolling in conservation programs, a process that some called complicated.  

NRCS, which has struggled for years to stay fully staffed, stands to lose about 2,400 employees to deferred resignations, according to numbers shared with Agri-Pulse by a Capitol Hill source. The agency had a total of 11,709 fill-time staff last October and at that time, aimed to reach 14,000 by 2026.

“It’s a little too soon for us to see the full impacts,” Megan Dwyer, the director of conservation and nutrient stewardship for the Illinois Corn Growers Association, said of the staffing cuts. “But I will say we know for sure that if we expect to see less staff in these offices with the archaic IT systems that they’re using, we’re going to continue to see long lines, delays in enrollment, struggles and frustrations with the farmers showing up looking to get service and that technical assistance.”

“But I also think that’s an opportunity where partnerships can come in,” she added.

NRCS has in the past entered into several staff- and office-sharing agreements with conservation districts, allowing the latter to help fulfill some of the federal agency’s technical assistance obligations. Organizations like Pheasants Forever and Ducks Unlimited have served similar roles. 

Gary Blair, the president of the National Association of Conservation Districts, said he is concerned by the loss of 2,500 employees and a potential return to fiscal year 2020 staffing levels, which NACD believes “were insufficient to meet producers’ needs.”

“Today, NRCS has an even higher workload associated with the administration of the IRA funds,” Blair said, adding that conservation districts, their associations, and related state agencies are “standing by” to help meet technical assistance needs.

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Blair said NRCS does need to keep “as many employees” as it can, noting that many of the initial terminations were “new employees that had been trained and were well-prepared for a long-term career."

Maintaining producer access to technical assistance is important to ensuring farmers continue trying out practices that reduce soil erosion and prevent nutrient runoff, said Lynn Tjeerdsma, a former assistant deputy administrator for farm programs at USDA’s Farm Service Agency who currently serves on the board of directors for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. 

“If we don’t have the technical assistance that is available to us now, I think these conservation programs are going to go by the wayside simply because the farmers and ranchers aren’t going to be utilizing them,” Tjeerdsma said. 

Brad Doyle, a producer and board member at the Arkansas Farm Bureau, said the NRCS employees he worked with on a conservation project are “very good at what they do,” but are only a few years from retirement. He said he doesn’t see many young people “standing up to replace them."

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