Message from Kevin Wickey

Last month, I attended the National Leadership Team meeting in D.C. The Chief emphasized three key messages:

• We must make conservation easier.
• We must remain focused on our core missions—collecting natural resources data, developing sound practice standards, conservation planning and providing technical assistance—to meet the needs of our customers.
• We must engage in cooperative conservation—no single individual or agency can do this job alone.

Placement of roller compacted concrete was completed last week on the Elkwater Fork Dam. I've had the opportunity to see this dam three times now and each time I am amazed at how big this dam is. But more importantly I'm amazed at the ability we have within NRCS in West Virginia to plan, design, and build such projects. This is an enormous accomplishment. It is even more amazing when one considers that it is only one of three active watershed projects under construction this year in West Virginia including Little Whitestick and Decker's Creek.

The middle of August is here and it is as busy as we expected for this time period and even more. I mentioned earlier this year that we would be given opportunities to work our way out of the deficit situation. The good news is that we we are seeing more opportunities in EQIP and WHIP for our customers in West Virginia than we have ever seen and now we have a balanced budget. However, this is creating lots of additional work for field offices in addition to the construction season, reporting progress, closing out legacy programs at the end of the farm bill and generally preparing for the end of the fiscal year now just 1.5 months away.

It is important during this busy time not to lose sight of the bigger picture. I've had the opportunity recently to be on several farms. It struck me again how much of a difference our technical assistance as well as our financial assistance makes for our customers. It is easy to see evidence of our work on the landscape. Work that will be present for many years to come. Thank you for your continued dedication to getting conservation on the ground - Helping People Help the Land.

Kevin Wickey
State Conservationist
West Virginia

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