Soil officials outline future conservation
WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Two leading conservation
officials, one federal and one
state, today said there must
be strategies or programs
for dealing with soil and
water conservation
programs in the future.
“Only if these strategies
are carefully selected and
implemented can America
get to where it wants to go in
soil and water con
servation,” M. Rupert
Cutler, assistant secretary
of agriculture for national
resources and environment,
told a group of national
conservation leaders
meeting at the Washington
Hilton Hotel.
While Cutler outlined
federal plans to deal with
soil and water resources
over the next 50 years, a
. state official criticized
: federal agencies for ad
ministering inefficient
i conservation programs.
{ Floyd Heft, chief of the
Division of Soil and Water
Districts, Ohio Department
of Natural Resources, said
state and local conservation
agencies have a greater
ability to administer
programs and to get con
servation practices applied
on the land.'
Cutler released the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s
preliminary objectives for
how much soil and water
conservation America needs
during the next 50 years.
The objectives, called for
under provisions of the Soil
and Water- Resources
Conservation Act of 1977, are
part of USDA’s appraisal of
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the nation’s soil and water
resources.
The -preliminary RCA
objectives deal with soil
quantity_and quality, water
quality, and water supply
and conservation.
The first of objectives,
dealing with soil, would:
-Prevent erosion from
causing irreversible damage
on nonfederal land which
currently is at the ac
ceptable erosion level.
-Use cost-effective ways
to reduce erosion on
cropland where the annual
soil loss rate is between the
acceptable level of five tons
per acre per year and 14
tons.
-Reduce erosion to the
acceptable level on cropland
which has a soil loss rate
exceeding 14 tons per acre
per year.
-Retain prime and unique
farmland, such as cranberry
bogs, as much as possible.
Department teams also
stressed the need for im
proving soil tilth, organic
content, infiltration capacity
and the need for reducing
compaction and salinity.
A second set of objectives,
dealing with water quality
would. Cutler said:
-Approach zero discharge
of toxic pollutants as soon as
possible. '
-Minimize the adverse
impacts of organic wastes,
with specific targets in
critical areas.
-Reduce pollution from
nutrients and salinity by 3Q
percent.
--Reduce sediment
pollution as needed to
protect lakes, reservoirs,
harbors and fisheries and to
achieve uses designated by
the states.
Objectives on ‘ water
supply and conservation
include:
-Increasing irrigation
efficiency from the current
rate of 55 percent to 71
percent on farms and from
77 to 90 percent off farms in
areas where water supplies
are dependable over the long
term.
-Stressing water con
servation practices in areas
where ground water is being
depleted.
-Working in cooperation
with the states to protect
instream uses by upgrading
operation and management
of existing irrigation im
provements.
Cutler said other ob
jectives would:
-Reduce to zero the net
loss of wetlands resulting
from agricultural uses.
-Reduce total upstream
flood damages by at least 16
percent, using both struc
tural and nonstructural
measures.
-Give priority to projects
that prevent loss of prime
agricultural lands and
wetlands.
Cutler said other tentative
objectives deal with fish and
wildlife habitat, waste
management and energy
conservation and produc
tion.
“Knowing your intended
direction, of course, does not
get you there,” the assistant
secretary said.
“There must be strategies
-
or programs for achieving
the objectives. Only if these
strategies are carefully
selected and implemented
can America get to-where it
wants to go in soil and water
conservation,” he said.
The released
are the first analysis of the
department’s RCA ap
praisal, which was com
pleted cdrhei thus i
Next, the department will
offer a series of
management strategies and
alternatives for im
plementing the objectives.
These alternatives will be
available in January.
Then, USDA will have a
public review period for
comments on those alter
natives.
Heft told the delegates at
the meeting, “The executive
and legislative branches of
our federal government
have shown little potency or
commitment to bring about
the substantial changes
needed to meet today’s
conservation challenges. ”
From a non-federal view,
Heft said conservation
leaders must expeditiously
pursue the following major
objectives:
-Remove the partisan
political" impact on all
federal conservation
professionals below the
Washington level and a
substantial percentage of the
Washington level em
ployees.
-Put conservation back in
the hands of local people,
where the accomplishments
are to be attained and where
local administrators are
aware of the needs.
-Encourage establish
ment of autonomous local
units of government having
taxing and extensive powers
and responsibilities in
natural resource con
servation management and
regulation where necessary.
-Establishment of state
agencies having similar
responsibilities as the local
units for delivering finan
cial, technical, legal, and
legislative program
assistance.
-Establishment of a
federal department having
similar responsiblities as
those at the state and local
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level to provide federal
assistance for conservation
of natural resources.
-Federal grant programs programs need tb be
to state and local govern- directed to attract a larger
ments need to be expanded percentage of landowners
and made more realistic, affected by soil and water
permitting much greater conservation problems,
latitude for local and state -Research activities in
decision-makers. soil and water management
-Combine technical and
cost-share programs for
landowners, eliminating
multiple agency in
volvement.
-Cost-share programs
need to be restructured to
gain local landowner ac
ceptance, public support,
and reduction of ad
ministrative overhead.
-Federal and state in
centive programs need to
reward landowners for good
conservation practices.
-Federal agencies must
direct their programs and
Hershey Center
rural services
UNVERSITY PARK -
The Penn State trustees
have approved a proposal to
request funding to expand
The Milton S. Hershey
Medical Center program
serving rural areas and
small communities.
Some $1,260,246 in sup
plemental funds will be
requested as part of the
University’s 1980-81 ap
propriation from the state.
“There continues to be a
pressing need for better
medical care in Penn
sylvania, and Penn State,
through the Milton Hershey
Medical Center, is trying to
respond to that need,” Dr.
John W. Oswald, president of
the University, told the
trustees.
“The Hershey Center is
the only medical school
university hospital located in
a non-metropolitan area of
the state. Accordingly, it has
accepted special respon
sibilities to improve the
quality and availability of
health services for the over
eight million Penn
sylvanians who reside
outside the Commonwealth’s
two principle metropolitan
areas.”
Eight rural medicine
programs developed at the
Hershey center, in con
sultation with physicians
and hospital staff members
from small communities,
have been tested and suc
cessfully established in some
'al
run areas. Permanent
continuing funding is
essential, Oswald said, if
they are to re 4& their full
potential.
He said the programs were
designed to bring the staff
ftoneDomooed
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personnel for maximum
effort at tlje field level.
must be expanded.
—More discussion is
needed by all of the
agricultural community on
how land management
controls can best be im
plemented at the farm level
-Greater independence
and coordination of wildlife,
forestry, surface
public lands management,
environmental programs,
and other development and
management programs
affecting natural resources
management and con
servation is needed.
to expand
resources and facilities of a
modern medical center to
underserved areas, to train
future doctors and health
practitioners for service in
rural areas and to provide
continuing education for
practicing physicians.
“Many community
physicians long have
practiced in relative
isolation from the main
stream modern
medicine,” Oswald noted.
“Opportunities have not
always been available to
them to narticinate in
refresher programs to be
adequately informed of
recent developments in
research and improved
medical practices.”
Equally important, he
said, are programs such as
Hershey’s Primary Care
Preceptorships, which give
medical students exposure
to family practice in «m*ll
communities by allowing
them to observe and work
with local physicians. More 1
than half of Hershey’s
students have participated
in such preceptorships.
Twenty-six percent of the
preceptorships have been
based in communities of
fewer than 5,000 people.
Statistics show that only
seven per cent of the white
babies born out of wed
lock in this country are
kept by their natural moth
ers. But 90 per cent of
the black babies born to
unmarried mothers are
kept by their families.
goals
-Education extension
Black and White
9