TWS member’s job at the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service helped farmers maintain soil health and improve wildlife habitat
I worked for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). I started working for NRCS as a soil conservationist in September 2024.
I collaborated with private landowners and farm producers to implement federally funded conservation practices on their land. I helped make their farming practice more sustainable and restored native prairie, grassland, forest or wetland ecosystems on their land if the landowner chose to do so.
My coworkers and I are motivated and dedicated to conservation. We care a lot about the people we impact. We help farmers address issues on their land like nutrition loss and management, soil loss and erosion, and wildlife habitat restoration and management.
NRCS attacks agricultural pollution at the source to address issues like air and water pollution.
If agencies like NRCS continue to be dismantled, farms across the U.S. will degrade, soil erosion will increase, water quality will degrade, and we could be at risk for large-scale environmental impacts such as those that occurred during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, when long-lasting drought and dust storms devastated North American prairie agriculture.
NRCS was created in direct response to the Dust Bowl and works to help people help the land. It is our mission to assist farmers in their journey to become more conservation conscious.
Wildlife Vocalizations Lost is a series about how federal job loss in the wildlife profession may impact conservation and wildlife management. It’s a part of our regular series, Wildlife Vocalizations, which is a collection of short personal perspectives from people in the field of wildlife sciences.
Learn more about Wildlife Vocalizations, and read other contributions to Wildlife Vocalizations Lost.
Submit your story for Wildlife Vocalizations Lost or nominate your peers and colleagues to encourage them to share their story. For questions, please contact tws@wildlife.org.
