| The Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS) provides conservation planning and technical
assistance to clients (individuals, groups, and units of
government). these clients develop and implement plans to protect,
conserve, and enhance natural resources (soil, water, air, plants, and
animals) and to address their social and economic interests.
In 1947, Hugh Hammond Bennett identified the
principles of conservation planning in his text, Elements of Soil
Conservation. According to Bennett, an effective conservation
plan must adhere to the following principles:
- Consider the needs and capabilities of each acre
within the plan.
- Consider the farmer's facilities, machinery, and
economic situation.
- Incorporate the farmer's willingness to try new
practices.
- Consider the land's relationship to the entire
farm, ranch, or watershed.
- Ensure the conservationist's presence out on the
land.
Planning involves more than considering individual
resources. It focuses on the natural systems and ecological
processes that sustain the resources. The plan strives to balance
natural resource issues with social and economic needs through the
development of conservation management systems (CMS) which include
resource management systems (RMS) and acceptable management systems (AMS).
The major difference between and RMS and an AMS is the level of
treatment for one or more of the resource considerations. |
The conservation plan enables
the planner to accomplish the following:
- Help protect, conserve, and enhance natural
resources.
- Design a CMS alternative that meets local resource
quality criteria for identified resource issues.
- Include the consideration of human concerns toward
achieving sustainable agriculture.
- Consider the effects of planned actions on
interrelated geographical areas (i.e., looking off-site, beyond the
planning unit boundary).
- Consider and explain the interaction between
biological communities and society.
- Focus on ecological principles.
- Consider the effects and interactions of planned
systems and practices on the natural resources, as well as economic
and social considerations.
- Assist with development of plans, regardless of
scale, which will help achieve the client's and society's
objectives.
- Identify where knowledge, science, and technology
need to be advanced.
Planning is complex and dynamic. Successful
planning requires not only a high level of knowledge, skills, and
abilities on the part of the planner, but also the exercise of
professional judgment.
For help in developing a conservation plan for your land contact the
nearest NRCS field office. |
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