New USDA Conservation Standards

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

The USDA has new and revised conservation standards. This is a part of their ongoing effort to make sure that their practices reflect new technological developments. Kevn Norton, acting chief of the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

Norton… “The whole purpose in our effectiveness, in working with our partners and really our agriculture producers across the country is that our science or technology remains current and relevant with the state of development. So this is the continual journey that we're on. It's not unique. It's something that we do on a continual basis. We just have kind of bunched a group of these up at this time and are releasing them in response to our overall effort to get through all of our conservation practice standards, and make sure that they are reflective of the current technology. So we'll continue this. This is not an annual thing. It's an ongoing journey that we're on and we'll have more releases and updates of standards, you know, going on into the future here.”

Norton says the new standards will be available for states to incorporate in their state field office technical guides. He says this does not require them to immediately change any of their current standards or disrupt projects currently in place. The plan is to give states plenty of time, maybe the next 12 months or so, for the standards to be adjusted and delivered for use on the ground.