Throughout the last seven years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) have made great strides in conserving private working lands and public lands for future generations. USDA has pioneered approaches to conservation by using incentives and partnerships to work with landowners across property boundaries in order to conserve watersheds, wildlife and large landscapes. USDA will demonstrate that conserving natural resources creates economic opportunities for rural communities across the country.
To that end, USDA is launching the second chapter of USDA Results, a progressive year-long storytelling effort of the work done on behalf of those living, working and raising families in rural America. Throughout February, USDA will be announcing new projects and highlighting the work done to conserve natural resources over the last seven years.
The majority of the nation’s lands are privately owned and USDA has invested more than $29 billion since 2009 to help farmers, ranchers, and landowners prevent soil erosion, create and protect wildlife habitat, and clean the air we breathe and the water we drink. NRCS has worked with as many as 500,000 of these producers on over 400 million acres across the nation. These stewards of the land are leaders in innovation and conservation of our natural resources.