NRCS announces reorganization plan

The Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Kansas recently announced a reorganization plan that includes the consolidation of several offices around the state. In a similar effort, the Kansas Natural Resources and Conservation Service (NRCS) has recently announced a reorganization plan.

Harold L. Klaege, State Conservationist NRCS in Kansas, announced he is proposing to close nine county field offices (FOs) and consolidate operations with neighboring county FOs to more efficiently and effectively manage operations while meeting a declining budget. NRCS is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The following are the NRCS field office consolidations: Cottonwood Falls FO will be consolidated with Emporia; Coldwater FO will be consolidated Medicine Lodge; Junction City FO will be consolidated with Manhattan; Gove FO will be consolidated with Oakley; Olathe FO will be consolidated with Paola; Leavenworth FO will be consolidated with Oskaloosa; Elkhart FO will be consolidated with Hugoton; Alma FO will be consolidated with Westmoreland and will be relocated to Wamego along with the Farm Service Agency office; Yates Center FO will be consolidated with Fredonia.

Before consolidation can take place, the National Food and Agriculture Council must approve the proposal. Following its approval, no county FOs could be closed for 120 days, so it would be hard to start consolidation much before Oct. 1, according to Klaege.

In July 2006, Klaege announced to the NRCS employees and county conservation district boards affected by the consolidation, and then the public, that a proposal for county FO consolidations had been developed because of forthcoming budget constraints.

Even though NRCS offices will consolidate, the county conservation districts in counties where NRCS is closing a county FO have indicated they are committed to maintaining a conservation office, according to Klaege. Through a partnership effort, NRCS employees will make regular visits to these district offices to provide technical assistance to producers as well as to the local conservation district.

"Conservation workload is not a limiting factor in Kansas," said Klaege. "Kansas producers are conservation minded and want to put conservation on the ground."

"The limiting factor," said Klaege, "is a sufficient staff to handle the workload and by managing the county FOs a little differently, we can make the dollars work smarter for our customers by putting staff in locations with the heaviest workloads."

"It is hard to move bricks and mortar," said Klaege, "but we started a pilot project this year that uses mobile offices so our field staff can go where the workload is. Mobility allows our staff to meet with a farmer or rancher on the land and develop a conservation plan on-site."

Currently, 15 employees are assigned pickups equipped with portable tablet computers, scanners, printers, cell phones, and global positioning satellite receivers. With the latest technology, NRCS employees are able to provide immediate access to natural resource data, such as soils, range sites, aerial photography, and Field Office Technical Guide information.

Visit your local NRCS county FOs to learn more about natural resources conservation. The county FO is located at your local USDA Service Center (listed in the telephone book under United States Government or on the internet at offices.usda.gov). More information is also available on the Kansas Web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.