NFB - “The Conservation Agriculture Does Already”

The Conservation Agriculture Does Already

By Doug Busselman | NFB, Executive Vice President

Earlier in March, Nevada Farm Bureau submitted public comments in response to a Federal Register Notice that sought input for the development of the

“American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas.” The Atlas is part of a bigger project being sought by the Biden Administration called the 30 x 30 Project. The 30 x 30 Project seeks to implement the Biden Administration’s goal of conserving “at least 30 percent of the U.S. lands and waters by 2030.” This goal came about by Executive Order 14008, which President Biden signed on January 27, 2021. From that top-down executive edict, the heads of several federal agencies worked through their bureaucratic processes to develop and release the “Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful” report, released on May 6, 2021. This 21-page document offered the vision that these agency leaders hoped would advance the overall dream of the conservation utopia that was offered in Executive Order 14008. The agencies involved were the: • U.S. Department of Interior • U.S. Department of Agriculture • U.S. Department of Commerce • Council on Environmental Quality The authors of “America the Beautiful” identified three problems that they believe need attention: • The disappearance of nature • Climate Change • Inequitable access to the outdoors The authors of “America the Beautiful” also stated, “In pursuing the President’s goal of conserving and restoring America the Beautiful, this report recommends adhering to eight key principles that will be critical to the success and durability of the effort.” From there, the report identified these eight principles: • Pursue a collaborative and inclusive approach to conservation • Conserve America’s lands and waters for the benefit of all people • Support locally led and locally designed conservation efforts • Honor Tribal sovereignty and support priorities of

Tribal nations • Pursue conservation and restoration approaches that create jobs and support healthy communities • Honor private property rights and support voluntary stewardship efforts of private landowners and fishers • Use science as a guide • Build on existing tools and strategies with an emphasis on flexibility and adaptive approaches On the surface, these all appear to be noble and unquestionable goals. Unfortunately, despite many attempts, no answer has been given, defining what exactly is “conservation.” The closest idea to identify what “conservation” might mean was this statement in “America the Beautiful”:

“Many stakeholders recommended that a continuum of effective conservation measures be acknowledged, departing from stricter definitions of ‘protection’ that do not recognize the co-benefits that working lands or areas managed for multiple use may offer.”

Figuring out where the starting point and what might be counted in the 10-year project of “conserving at least 30 percent of the U.S. lands and waters by 2030” -- “America the Beautiful” stated…

“This report recommends that the U.S. Government take two complementary steps to measure and report upon conservation progress in the United States: the creation of an American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas that collects baseline information on the amount and types of lands and waters that are being managed for conservation and restoration purposes, and the publication of annual America the Beautiful updates on the health of nature in America and on the Federal Government’s efforts to support locally led conservation and restoration efforts.”

In other words, the purpose of the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas is

“To develop and track a clear baseline of information on lands and waters that have already been conserved or restored, the U.S. Government should establish an interagency working group of experts to build an American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas. The Atlas would be an accessible, updated, and comprehensive tool through which to measure the progress of conservation, stewardship, and restoration efforts across the United States in a manner that reflects the goals and principles outlined in this report (“this report being “America the

Beautiful”).” The interagency working group identified to develop and operate the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas is led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in partnership with the Council on Environmental Quality, and other land and ocean management agencies at the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and the Interior. What might come out of the “interagency working group” by way of constructing the American Conservation and Stewardship Atlas and establishing the metrics which will tally the progress in getting to whatever they decide will be “30 percent” remains to be seen. On the other hand, the questions structured in the Federal Register Notice, to help guide public input, did not leave much confidence that the principle of “Honoring private property rights and support the voluntary stewardship of efforts of private landowners and fishers” was going to find a very measurable place in “continuum” of conservation. The Federal Register Notice posed contributors’ thoughts on things like “clearly defined geographic boundaries” or

“status of ecological function” or “representation of species

and habitats”. Given the way these items were structured and included, it’s doubtful that anything without some sort of federal designation will be tallied in the 30 percent. Having a federal panel of interagency bureaucrats designing the official scorecard also makes one wonder how to support “locally led and locally designed conservation efforts” will be accomplished. What local efforts will pass their predetermined tests? Because Nevada is already overwhelmingly comprised of federally managed lands and dominated by federal agencies with a decades-long obsession for locking away more and more acres through an always increasing variety of land designations, we might be a wee-bit cynical about reading the hype in “America the Beautiful.” We also maintain that agricultural producers (those who farm on private lands and those who manage livestock grazing on federal lands) have and continue to deliver on improved conservation practices. This is borne out with a recently released report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The report, called the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) made a 10-year comparison of progress accomplished in implementing conservation practices on cropland across the country. Some of the highlights include: • Structural practice adoption increased by nearly 31 million acres, largely in combination with conservation tillage and other structural practices on the same field as supporting practices to control erosion and trap sediment. Conservation tillage adoption increased by 53.4 million acres and became the dominant form of tillage on all cultivated cropland (67 percent). More than 41.5 million acres of the total increase was in continuous no-till, which reached 33 percent of all cultivated cropland by CEAP II. • Adoption patterns were slightly higher on the most vulnerable cultivated cropland, with structural practices, conservation tillage, or both in place on 85 percent of highly erodible land (HEL) and on over 90 percent of cultivated cropland with high or moderately high runoff vulnerability. • Conservation crop rotations were used on nearly 70 percent of cultivated cropland acres, up from 66 percent in CEAP I. Nearly 28 percent of all cultivated cropland had high-biomass conservation crop rotations. Although those who have been involved in the government’s 30 x 30 initiative haven’t been able or willing to define what they intend to count as “conservation” – agricultural producers have been demonstrating through their actions that they already do conservation.