NRCS CONSERVATION PRACTICE STANDARDS
PERFORMANCE MEASURES
CONSERVATION EFFECTS ASSESSMENT PROJECT

NRCS CONSERVATION PRACTICE STANDARDS

All conservation plans are compilations of NRCS Conservation Practices. Therefore, every project must meet the conservation practice design criteria (standard) or the producer will not be provided financial assistance if they are under a conservation program contract.

There are approximately 170 Conservation Practices that cover a large array of conservation activities from Alley Cropping to Windbreaks. Descriptions of these practices can be viewed at the NRCS web site http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/standards/nhcp.html). 

Some conservation practices directly relate to wildlife and fish habitat (e.g., Upland Wildlife Habitat, Wetland Wildlife Habitat, etc). However, most practices are geared toward other resources and indirectly affect fish and wildlife. Therefore, it is critical that wildlife biologists work with State Technical Committees to provide recommendations to NRCS on how to make Conservation Practice Standards more beneficial to wildlife.

National Conservation Practice Standards are reviewed every 3-5 years by teams of technical specialists, and then published in the Federal Register for public comment. Once finalized, the standards are distributed to the state NRCS offices which further refine the practice to fit their specific situation. State revisions can increase or make criteria more restrictive, but they must meet the national minimums.

The Wildlife Society published a technical report in 2007 that evaluated the effects of NRCS conservation practice standards used in Farm Bill implementation on fish and wildlife resources. See the RESOURCES section for a listing of publications that provide detailed information about the benefits to fish and wildlife..

PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS

With money comes the responsibility of accountability. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) helps determine the funding each agency will receive to carry out conservation, and they expect the agency to set goals and measure progress. These goals guide implementation of Farm Bill programs. For example, the NRCS National Office establishes performance objectives and priorities which are then passed to the NRCS State Office which then sets goals for each Field Office.

Measurement of conservation outcomes is not an easy task. Presently NRCS uses some Conservation Practice Standards as one way to measure progress. For example, acres of Upland Wildlife Habitat Conservation Practice (645) may be used for establishing wildlife goals. However, these Conservation Practice Standards were not originally designed for that purpose. They were developed to set criteria for installation, not measure outcomes. Therefore, when reporting Upland Habitat Management Conservation Practice (645), you know that upland wildlife habitat was created or enhanced for a particular species to a greater or lesser degree on a specific number of acres.

Federal agencies continue to strive for more transparent performance measurements, but that task is daunting. However, goals and reporting are important issues for NRCS, FSA, and other Federal agencies,  so understanding that need is useful in having more effective communication with the agencies.

CONSERVATION EFFECTS ASSESSMENT PROJECT

Farm Bill conservation programs have produced substantial environmental benefits. The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) is a multi-agency effort to examine the effects of conservation practices applied by land users participating in various USDA conservation programs or who otherwise receive technical assistance from USDA conservation planners. CEAP involves a variety of components, each of which evaluates and quantifies one or more of the environmental benefits from applying conservation on agricultural lands. CEAP is intended to provide planners and decision-makers with information to make informed land management decisions.

Initiated in 2005, the CEAP Wildlife Component involves a variety of assessment elements, most of which are applied at regional scales. NRCS and FSA, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), USFWS, and many others are involved in evaluating the benefits that agriculture conservation practices provide to fish and wildlife. Specific projects underway include assessing improvements in habitat value, documenting increases in habitat use by target species or groups, and estimating population responses. Most activities currently underway focus on the response of various bird species and groups to conservation practices and programs. Details on specific assessments are available on the CEAP website at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Technical/nri/ceap/wildlife.html .

The CEAP Wildlife Component is an effort to quantify the effects of conservation practices and programs on fish and wildlife and their habitats in landscapes influenced by agriculture in the U.S. Since fish and wildlife are affected by conservation actions taken on a variety of landscapes, the Wildlife Component links to the CEAP Croplands, Wetlands, and Grazing Lands Components to the extent possible. It is virtually impossible to comprehensibly quantify the myriad effects of the Farm Bill’s many conservation practices on innumerable fish and wildlife species and communities. Therefore, the Wildlife Component operates under some basic principles to document those effects that are reasonably quantifiable. These principles include working collaboratively with others engaged in relevant assessments, leveraging the use of existing data to the extent possible, identifying critical data gaps, and stimulating actions to fill them, and focusing assessments on regional scales.

The USFWS and the U.S. Geological Survey are promoting  Strategic Habitat Conservation as a model framework for adaptive resource management. This approach is being used to plan, design, and evaluate conservation landscapes for wildlife. For more information, visit http://www.fws.gov/science/StrategicHabitatConservation.html.