Local NRCS Office

 Jon gave me some computer assistance this afternoon while others went elsewhere. Then we went over to visit the local NRCS office. His current position in Washington D.C. involves activities at the local level so we made an “unofficial visit”. I asked him to write this blog page on our visit. 

You never know the path that life may take you and mine has taken me to suddenly being responsible for all the offices and vehicles in my agency. Tremendous responsibility, but also a tremendous opportunity to improve the service to our local conservation offices.

Today I made a trip, in the company of my Dad, to the local Seward County USDA Service Center. Seventy years ago, this year, my dad began working for the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), the forerunner of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Through the efforts of my dad and others in the work unit, soil was protected, water was conserved, and agricultural production was sustained and increased. A quick drive down Hwy. 34 to Lincoln is all it takes to see the very terraces that helped protected the soils of Seward County. My dad and my uncle put those terraces in decades ago and they still survive to this day.

A new generation of conservationists have taken both my dad’s and my place in the local field office. They have that same enthusiastic attitude and desire to serve this nation’s farmers and ranchers. Whether it is the district conservationist, the resource conservationist, the soil conservationist, the conservation technician, or the natural resource district clerk, each is ready to bring that high-quality customer service to those of the agricultural community that need help.

It wasn’t lost on either my dad or myself, when I asked the resource conservationist who Hugh Hammond Bennett was, that he quickly responded, “The Father of Soil Conservation!” I can rest a bit easier tonight knowing that the future of this nation’s natural resources are in such capable hands as those in the Seward County USDA Service Center.