USDA Renews Cooperative Working Agreement with State Agency and Soil and Water Conservation Districts
 

Bangor, Maine – January 7, 2008 -- Joyce Swartzendruber, State Conservationist of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Seth Bradstreet III, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, signed individual Cooperative Working Agreements with the Chairpersons of the 16 Soil and Water Conservation Districts in Maine at the Maine Association of Conservation Districts’ Annual Meeting in Bangor recently. The purpose of each agreement is to supplement the Mutual Agreement between the USDA, the State of Maine, and the Soil and Water Conservation District, and document those areas of common interest in natural resources conservation. The customers of the parties served are individual landowners, land users, Federal and State land management agencies, individuals, groups and other units of government.

Historically, the three-aforementioned parties have a longstanding partnership. Sharing common commitments to provide leadership in resource conservation, they work together to develop and maintain collaborative relationships by several methods. Surveying customer needs, determining natural resource priorities, and planning strategies to address those issues are a few of the shared commitments outlined in the formal agreement.

In addition, the parties will encourage a watershed approach to natural resource planning by coordinating with public and private resource groups, agencies and interested parties to share natural resource information and other resources in developing these plans. The Natural Resources Conservation Service seeks input for its program delivery through the State Technical Committee as well as Local Work Groups. Soil and Water Conservation Districts periodically convene locally-led conservation meetings to seek input from constituents regarding natural resource issues, priorities, and potential remedies.

“This three-way partnership is critical in carrying out our mission of helping people help the land by conserving, maintaining or improving Maine’s natural resources”, said Swartzendruber.  “Our accomplishments have been many, but it is an ongoing effort on everyone’s part.  I look forward to our continued partnership with the Maine Department of Agriculture and the local Soil and Water Conservation Districts.”

The Natural Resources Conservation Service is the primary Federal agency that works with private landowners to help them protect their natural resources.  They provide products and services, financial and technical, that enable people to be good stewards of the Nation’s soil, water, and related natural resources on non-Federal lands. 

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources is the State’s lead agency dealing with all aspects of the food system from the field to the table.  The Department fosters opportunities for the agriculture community and promotes stewardship of Maine’s natural resources. 

Soil and Water Conservation Districts are subdivisions of state government run by locally elected and appointed volunteers who work to solve local natural resource problems.  Working in a unique cooperative partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and state and local partners, Soil and Water Conservation Districts reach out to all local stakeholders in the community to determine priorities and set a course of action to solve natural resource problems.

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