Message from Kevin Wickey

We are already just a few weeks away from completing half of FY2008. We’ve made some significant progress during that half a year.

We successfully obligated 95% of our EQIP initial allocation on February 7th and received the remaining FA and accompanying TA EQIP allocation because of our regional equity status on February 12th. We’re days away from completing all EQIP, GRP, FRPP, and WHIP obligations. A big thank you goes out to all of you involved in one way or another with these successful obligations.

All of us in NRCS in WV owe a debt of gratitude to these individuals because their efforts provided us with a huge accomplishment – the extra EQIP TA funds provided a balanced budget for us this fiscal year.

Of course, now the work really starts on these contracts – implementing conservation practices. I understand that will be a huge challenge for us as we look at all the practices that are waiting on our design and implementation assistance the rest of this year.

With a balanced budget in place, we now need to consolidate a bit and look at several things, including training we need to accomplish yet this year and getting the staff we have in the locations where the need is the greatest.

Of course, our on-going tasks are in front of us as well. We need to achieve our performance goals, business plan items, as well as continue to work on our staffing plan - but I’m confident that we can achieve success in these items as well.

Let me finish by drawing your attention to the new information campaign that the Chief just kicked off at the recent NACD conference in Reno, Nevada called Conservation: Our Purpose. Our Passion. For this campaign, each state has gathered up information, quotes, and photographs from some of the NRCS staff and customers whose purpose and passion about their work is worth sharing. These short profiles will demonstrate to our customers, our partners, and to each other just how and why we do what we do. Over the next year, the campaign will share stories of different employees with different jobs on the campaign’s national website – and we’ll feature even more on our state website. I encourage you to take some time and read a few—it’s good reading and it’s inspiring to read their stories.

Part of the campaign is our customers telling what conservation and our assistance has meant to them in their own words in a 5 minute video. I just sent DVD’s out to all districts containing this video. Take a moment and view that video. When I viewed it, it helped remind me again what we are about – helping people help the land. I want to thank each of you for your own personal commitment and the passion you demonstrate for NRCS and for conservation here in West Virginia.

Kevin Wickey
State Conservationist
West Virginia

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