Natural Resources Conservation Service

As we bid farewell to the holiday season, it’s a good time to take stock of the gifts we received—and the gifts we gave. Conserving our natural resources is one of the ways we can give back to our children, communities, and economy for years to come.

Clean water is a priority for all of us. When farmers manage nutrients, they are also helping to minimize the runoff of nutrients into local streams and rivers.

For farmers across the country, it comes as no surprise to hear that conservation tillage practices – particularly continuous no-till – can save time and money compared to conventional tillage. The potential benefits of no-till are well-documented, from improving soil health to reducing annual fuel...

Did you know it’s travel season for monarch butterflies? Each fall, millions of these black-and-orange butterflies journey south from their summer quarters in the United States to their winter homes, which for some is as far away as Mexico.

Private landowners in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana have protected 700,000 acres of critical wetlands in the past 25 years, which accounts for one-third of all wetlands under USDA conservation easements in the country. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and several...

Catastrophic, ferocious, devastating and unprecedented are just some of the words still being used to describe the hurricane known as Harvey that slammed Texas’ coast in late August.

David Hemme of Sweet Springs, Missouri, scrolls down through a German webpage on his smartphone. The insignia of “Hemme Milch” anchors the top of the page, a company owned and operated by Hemme’s distant relatives in Germany.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Texas has developed a new USDA web application – Hurricane Harvey Damage Reporter – to help staff assess post-storm, agricultural damages faster and easier than the previous handwritten process.

Byrhonda Lyons of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contributed this blog on USDA’s work in conservation partnerships. When Mike and Kathy Landini packed their belongings into friends’ trucks and left Concord, Calif., for Elk Creek, Calif., they had no idea what their new life would bring. They...

“I don’t like crowds, and I don’t like busy highways,” says Crawford, Texas rancher Larry Mattlage. “That crazy world out there can get me frustrated and upset. This land is where I am most at ease.” He was raised on the land his German immigrant grandfather settled on in the late 1880s. The 400...