Conservation Compliance and NRCS

Via Farm Policy, the Grand Forks Herald reports on a backlog of wetland determinations at NRCS, a big enough issue to get the agency head out there.

From the article:

Wetlands determinations that are held up, waiting for NRCS approval, have become frustrating for the region’s farmers, particularly those in the central and southern Red River Valley. They want to use tile drainage or water management to contend with a string of wet years, and to capitalize on higher commodity prices and land values.

Apparently NRCS is looking at using a 30-year average, dropping extreme years and coming up with an average.

This sentence struck me: "White [head of NRCS] said he thinks USDA can approve some of the procedures in a month." I wonder. If there's no one to challenge the changes, he's probably right. But if Ducks Unlimited or others think it's unwise/unfair, I'd assume they'd have to go through rule-making, though on the third hand I'm not sure how much rule-making NRCS does.  In the old days that wasn't part of the agency's culture, simply because they were always helping farmers, never hurting them.

Once again this is in the pothole area, and is a caution to us bureaucrats who assume once you identify a thing, it's that thing forever.