By Director of Projects and Partnerships Rich Duesterhaus

June 28, 2018 – After the hurricanes last year, conservation districts and their partners in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) were confronted with heavy workloads and staff shortages to implement conservation practices.

Additionally, districts in Puerto Rico had just undergone some significant restructuring to streamline and consolidate their operations—leaving them multiple challenges all at the same time. Fortunately, NACD in cooperation with NRCS had just begun a technical assistance grant program for districts and their state/territory wide partners. NACD President Brent Van Dyke directed attention to the unique challenges conservation districts face in the territories. Two Puerto Rican districts, along with their territory leadership, submitted an application to participate in the program with an application from the U.S. Virgin Islands not far behind.

Both territories had a large workload and limited existing staff, so the technical assistance grants were a pathway toward getting additional help on the ground and laying the groundwork to strengthen conservation district operations throughout both territories. To support the requests, ten positions were approved for Puerto Rico and the USVI. For each territory, two positions were dedicated to developing longer range plans for each conservation district and for leadership across the territories overall. The other six positions were targeted to high priority work in the Caribe SWCD and the Southwest SWCD. Hiring of some new staff got underway quite quickly.

Currently, engineers, technicians, program support specialists and conservation planners are being hired with the grant funds. Funding for the positions will give an added boost over the next year towards planning and implementing conservation measures across the territories. Specifically, the conservation measures will provide protection from erosion, help improve soil health, provide habitat for pollinators, and ease or reduce potential flooding and run off, resulting in cleaner waters.

While the work is still in the beginning stages, it is already apparent that the extra staff has helped make a difference for many residents in Puerto Rico and the USVI—the customers of conservation districts. The natural resources of the territories will be better protected and available for productive uses.

An equally important component to this grant work is the longer-term work being done to strengthen the conservation districts and territory level district institutions. The goal is for Puerto Rico and the USVI to have the leadership in place to provide sustainable conservation work for decades to come. On our site visit to the territories, we met with many leaders both seasoned and new that have a vision for what they want to accomplish. The commitment of leaders such as USVI Commissioner of Agriculture Carlos Robles and Puerto Rico Secretary of Agriculture Carlos Flores and their staffs was evident. The conservation district supervisors and staff we met with also expressed optimism and plans to keep strengthening their efforts. NRCS Caribbean Director Edwin Almodovar and his team shared a similar optimism and commitment to the future.

NACD will continue to monitor progress and look for ways to continue strengthening support for conservation districts with programs like the technical assistance grants and other projects to help advance the conservation delivery system across the country.