1/ 2/ Decisionmakers receiving technical services is the number of individuals, groups and units of government assisted with the authority to make land use and treatment decisions on lands under their management and control. Acres treated to conservation standards is land adequately protected to maintain productive capacity and contain erosion and deterioration within acceptable limits. Needed conservation practices and management systems have been installed. A The Assistance to Indians: The Soil Conservation Service in FY 1978 began accelerating its technical assistance to Indians both on and off reservations. targeting of resources has taken place in those States with Indian landusers. number of Indians assisted increased 40 percent from FY 1978 to FY 1980. Several new conservation districts are in the process of being formed on Indian land in Arizona and several new field offices are being set up to provide technical assistance. Agricultural Waste Management: Livestock wastes are the number one problem related to pollution by organics from agriculture. The Soil Conservation Service has assisted landusers with the management of their agricultural waste since 1935. In recent years with the increased emphasis being placed on water quality, Soil Conservation Service has accelerated its technical assistance in the agricultural waste management area. In FY 1980 there was over a 100 percent increase in the number of agricultural waste management systems installed compared to FY 1978, from 2,200 to 4,700. Aquaculture: Through local conservation districts, the Soil Conservation Service now provides technical assistance to fish farmers. This assistance covers a range of subjects including: basic biological matters related to or influenced by land use and water management; water quality and waste disposal; engineering assistance in the design, layout, and construction of production facilities such as ponds, reservoirs, raceways, dams, water supply and waste disposal systems; and interpretation of soils information in site selection for production facilities. A national aquaculture team was established in FY 1980 to assist in coordinating technical assistance efforts. Eight states, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Vermont, were designated in FY 1980 to accelerate aquaculture assistance to fish producers. Surface Mine Reclamation: A total of 2,885 program applications (on 91,000 acres) for assistance under the Rural Abandoned Mine Program have been submitted to the Soil Conservation Service by land users in 19 States. To date Soil Conservation Service has signed a total of 137 contracts for the reclamation of 2,893 acres; obligating 15.2 million. Seventy-four contracts totaling $8.8 million were signed in FY 1980. Reclamation is underway or completed on 57 of the contracts and 835 acres have been reclaimed. Agricultural Conservation Program: SCS technical assistance was provided to approximately 100,000 Agricultural Conservation Program (ACP) participants in FY 1980 who requested cost-share assistance from ASCS to solve resource problems. Technical assistance to ACP participants includes planning, design, layout, supervison of installation, and certification that the practice meets SCS standards and specifications. Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Implementation: The SCS is providing accelerated technical assistance in the Grand Valley area of Colorado and the Uintah basin area of Utah to enhance and protect the quality of water available in the Colorado River for use in the United States and Mexico (PL 93-32, Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act) to: prepare conservation plans of operations, design and supervise installation of irrigation improvements to reduce deep percolation and salt load to the Colorado River from private lands, and provide continuing technical assistance to be sure irrigators practice adequate irrigation water management. The Colorado area encompasses 60,000 acres and the Utah portion 200,000 acres. Technical assistance funds designated for this purpose are as follows: FY 1980, $259,000; FY 1981, $516,000; and FY 1982, $516,000. Emergency Technical Assistance Mt. St. Helens: Emergency technical assistance funds were used effectively in the Mt. St. Helens disaster area to aid landowners to reduce excess runoff and erosion by various methods of incorporating the ash blanket into the soil. Assistance was provided to irrigation farmers to increase infiltration rates through the ash and into the soil, again by mixing the ash with the underlying soil. Field trials to study the adaptability of plants were conducted on ash covered rangelands and at the Plant Materials Center. Four automated SNOTEL stations were installed in the devastated area for snow reports and moisture predictions. Some technical assistance was provided for the re-seeding and fertilizing of 21,000 acres of denuded land near the mountain. Most of the cost of that operation, however, was borne by Emergency Watershed Funds. INVENTORY AND MONITORING Work under this appropriation item consists of collecting and interpreting natural and related resource data, other than soil survey data, and providing the results to users for resource programming, planning, and appraising. The major effort is directed toward gathering statistically reliable data on the status and condition of the resources on non-federal lands, but includes several supportive efforts of making important farmland maps, reporting on wind erosion conditions in the Great Plains States, and conducting special inventories to detect any changes in resources such as the shelterbelts and drained farmlands. These activities bridge the void between technical resource data and application of these data in everyday land use decisions. Current Activities: Current natural and related resource information from this program enables individuals, groups, and units of government to make sound and cost-effective resource and environmental decisions. The data and interpretations are used for identifying and examining resource problems, assessing resource concerns of the public, and targeting conservation efforts of USDA. The results of a recently released National Resources Inventory (NRI, 1977) of each State, except Alaska, were used for the appraisal part of the Resources Conservation Act of 1977 and for resource programming and planning at the State and national levels. Specific problems to which efforts are now being directed are: 1. Retaining agricultural lands. There is a rapid growth in world demand for U.S. food, a concern about balance of trade, expanding energy costs, and uncertainties about future advances in farming technology. Inventories made of prime farmland and the potential for cropland provide benchmark data that are used for assessing the resource part of the issue. Continued monitoring will detect changes in the status and condition of these important lands. 2. Targeting conservation to resource problems and concerns. USDA and others direct their actions to the most pressing resource problems and to those that will provide the greatest benefit to society with the least cost. Inventorying provides resource data to decisionmakers for conservation programming and planning. Monitoring provides the followup required to measure progress and reevaluate conservation priorities. 3. Addressing environmental concerns. Growing more food and fiber increases the risk of degrading the Nation's soil and water resources. Tons of soil lost by erosion can be related to the loss of productivity of land and poor water quality. As prime farmland is converted to uses such as urban development, lands less suited for crop production are substituted. This increases energy cost and conservation investments, and requires high-level management to prevent soil degradation. Loss of prime farmland encourages landowners to convert wetlands and natural flood plains to cropland. Resource inventories provide data on prime farmland, its use and change in status as well as data on potential for cropland and conservation treatment of land. The inventories provide data for carrying out the surface mining regulations on prime farmland used for crops and for preparing environmental impact statements. Selected Examples of Recent Progress: Recent achievements under this appropriation item are listed below. 1. The 1982 National Resources Inventory (NRI, 1982) is underway in all States. The 1982 NRI, a three year effort, is scheduled for completion by the end of calendar year 1982 to meet the need for new data, primarily in support of the 1985 appraisal called for in the Resource Conservation Act. This effort is designed to collect data for major land resource areas (MLRA's). In addition to monitoring previously used data sites to update data collected on eleven resource elements in the 1977 NRI, eleven additional resource data elements including wildlife habitat diversity, critical erosion areas, existing conservation practices, and other vegetative data, will be inventoried. 2. Additional important farmland inventory maps are completed. To date, 396 county important farmland inventory maps are published and another 166 are in progress, but not published. In addition, eight State generalized prime farmland inventories are completed. Nearly 1,300 counties in the U.S. have prime farmlands undergoing significant land use changes through urbanization or surface mining. The program goal is to complete these 1,300 county inventory maps by 1986. Subsequently, monitoring is planned to locate and measure the extent of losses of the important farmlands. Inventory maps are published and furnished to local and State units of government, agencies, and others. 3. Wind erosion conditions for the 10 Great Plains States are reported. Each year during the November 1 to June 1 blowing season, 516 counties in the Great Plains States prepare estimates of cropland, rangeland, and other land damaged; crops or cover destroyed on land not damaged; land not damaged due to emergency tillage; and land in condition to blow. Also data are provided on the major factors contributing to wind erosion for the blowing season. The report is used for informational purposes and to alert conservationists and others on the extent and severity of wind erosion in the high hazard areas. The data 4. Special resource problems are inventoried. Field work is completed on inventorying gully, streambank, roadside, and construction site erosion. is being assembled for release to agencies and the public. Periodic reports are prepared on short-duration natural phenomena that affect health, safety, and agricultural production. Examples are drought, hail, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, prolonged temperature extremes, fire, plant diseases, and insect infestations. These reports are used to inform the Department, news media, and others of the extent of these phenomena and the impact on SCS activities. 77-802 0-81-49 The land best suited to producing food, forage, and fiber is called prime farmland. It has the soil quality, growing season, and moisture supply to produce a sustained high yield of crops with a minimum of energy inputs and soil erosion. The U.S. has 346 million acres of prime farmland of which about 67 percent is now being used for cropland. Currently, a million acres of these important farmlands are being lost annually to other uses. |