Conservation planning by hydrologic units

My administrative area covers one-fourth of the land area, one-third of highly erodible land, and approximately one-fifth of the producers enrolled in farm programs in Illinois. To address this volume of workload under the Food Security Act, it was evident that field offices must be more productive; business as usual could not continue. But what we are doing now did not just start in December 1985. Our process evolved from the enhanced cooperative relations that formed when the state assessed the status of conservation through the Soil and Water Resource Conservation Act of 1977. This process involved considerable public participation and interaction with all natural resource agencies in Illinois. The results of this assessment revealed 15 resource concerns that the Illinois conservation team agreed upon. Erosion control and water quality improvement were two top priorities. The State of Illinois adopted a “T by 2000” program under the leadership of the Department of Agriculture, Division of Natural Resources. To implement this state program, each soil and water conservation district prepared an erosion and sediment control plan. Two components of a district plan were these: (1) How much work is there to do, and (2) what type of resources are needed to achieve the land treatment needs? These plans were being drafted in the early 1980s. Awareness of a problem is one of the first …