Strong concensus exists within the wildlife community and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that wildlife conservation results achieved through the Farm Bill are strongly correlated with the biological capacity at the local level (e.g., NRCS biologists, cost-shared Farm Bill biologists, etc.). That national agricultural policy favoring wildlife conservation is as successful as the local delivery capacity.

Biologists accelerate fish and wildlife conservation by:

• Bringing specialized fish and wildife knowledge and habitat management skills into conservation planning.

• Marketing fish and wildlife aspects of the Farm Bill programs and benefits of practices to farmers, ranchers, and other private landowners.

• Facilitating timely implementation of planning, contracting, and practice implementation necesarry to bring habitat projects to fruition.

• Being locally involved and maintaining landowner trust.

The results are very clear: The Farm Bill conservation programs are most successful for wildlife where we have boots on the ground in the form of biological technical assistance capacity -- be it internal or through partners.

The following documents explain more about the current supply and demand for biological capacity for successful delivery of the Farm Bill. Recommendations are also presented on how to develop additional biological capacity to deliver the Farm Bill's conservation programs and thereby acheive important wildlife conservation goals.

Biological Delivery Capacity: The Key to Successful Farm Bill Fish and Wildlife Conservation
One-pager by U.S. NABCI Private Lands Subcommittee (pdf)

Delivering Fish and Wildlife Conservation: Building Biological Capacity August 2009
18-page report by the U.S. NABCI Private Lands Subcommittee (3.28 MB doc)