Designing Landscape Conservation Initiatives to Deliver Agricultural Conservation Programs

NRCS uses Landscape Conservation Initiatives to accelerate the results that can be achieved through voluntary conservation programs.  Most program delivery is driven primarily by grassroots input and local needs.  Landscape Conservation Initiatives enhance the locally driven process to better address nationally and regionally important conservation goals that transcend localities.  Examples of these goals include improving water quality in the Great Lakes (8 states), reducing the decline of the Ogallala Aquifer (8 states), and enhancing the habitat of keystone species like the greater sage grouse (11 states). Through landscape conservation initiatives, NRCS and its partners coordinate the delivery of assistance where it can have the most impact in these broad ranges. Since establishing the initiatives under the 2008 Farm Bill, NRCS has used successes and lessons learned to refine the delivery and design of landscape conservation initiatives. With tools like the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, the 2014 Farm Bill further emphasizes the focus on building effective partnerships and obtaining meaningful results for key natural resource concerns. While the implementation of initiatives varies by resource concern and geography, the principle design factors of initiatives include a shared vision by stakeholders, a scientific basis for action, established goals, geographic and conservation system targeting, partner involvement, and outcome measures.