Introduction

This document is organized in sections – District History, Administration and Financing, District Policies, Physical Characteristics, Economic Trends and Conditions, Resource Conditions, Trends and Conservation Needs. In addition to prioritizing conservation efforts in Nez Perce County, this resource plan provides information on the background, trend, and condition of our critical resource issues.

Describes the general history of conservation and district history.

Administration and Financing

Describes the physical District organization and funding structure.

District Policies

Lists general District policies.

Physical Characteristics

Describes the physical and social characteristics of the District.

Describes the economic conditions the District considered in developing the Resource Conservation Plan.

This section addresses the resource problems the District proposes to solve. This section is divided into the following sections; Soil Resources, Water Resources, Plant Resources, Air Resources, Animal Resources, existing land uses and other resources. The outline for each section includes a description of the present condition and problems associated with the resource or land use. The second part called “Conservation Needs” outlines items needed for improvement. The Conservation Needs section provides a basis for outlining the District’s goals and objectives.

The Nez Perce Soil and Water Conservation District (District) was created in 1941 and is governed by a board of locally elected supervisors. District supervisors do not receive pay and serve a minimum of a four-year term.

The District is required by state law to complete a resource conservation plan which outlines the District’s goals and activities on a five-year basis. This plan is similar to a strategic plan as it identifies resource concerns and specific actions needed to address those concerns.

Each year the District revises its plan using a public input process. In addition, the District uses resource inventories and public surveys to identify needs within the county. The District works on priority resource concerns identified through the inventory and public input process. In addition, the District supports a voluntary approach to conservation and encourages a locally led conservation process.

To identify priority resource concerns the District considered the results of an extensive public participation effort completed in the year 2000. This effort resulted in a survey which identified the top ten resource conservation issues within Nez Perce County (Table 1.). The District also used a nation-wide Gallup poll completed by the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to determine the scope of the locally determined issues. The focus of the resource conservation plan is the treatment of these priority issues.

Table 1. Top ten resource issues identified by public survey.

• Soil Erosion*
• Agricultural Sustainability*,**
• Loss of Agricultural Land*,**
• Agricultural Productivity
• Rural land Development/Urban Sprawl
• Forestry
• Soil quality/Soil Health
• Flooding/Water Quality
• Air Quality

*A Gallup poll conducted nation wide identified these issues as key national issues. **A nation wide Gallup poll identified these as key issues west wide.