Roles & Responsibilities of Partners & Associations

Given the importance and breadth of partnerships is Delaware, today's training module is a doozy! We'll give an overview of partners in the state, as well as some of the different kinds of agreements that we use to work together.

• Importance of forming partnerships for district program delivery
• The Delaware Conservation Partnership
• NRCS history, structure and responsibilities
• State conservation agency history, structure, position and responsibilities
• Other state, federal and local partners
• DACD & NACD history & structure
• Functions of an association
• Specific programs offered by local, state and national associations
• Agreements- Cooperative Agreements & Memorandums of Understanding
• Partnership development & group dynamics
• Locally Led Process
• Examples of successful partnerships
• Acronym listing of existing partnership

Delaware Association of Conservation Districts (DACD)

Delaware’s enabling act was passed on April 12, 1943. The Act created the Soil Conservation Commission to determine the need for districts, define their boundaries, conduct election of the first Boards of Supervisors and assure that district programs conformed to legislative intent. The functions of the Commission were transferred to the Division of Soil and Water Conservation when State Government was reorganized in 1969 and the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control was created.

National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD)

• The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) formed in 1946, is a non-governmental, non-profit organization which represents nearly 3000 Conservation Districts nationally.

• NACD maintains offices in Washington D.C. and has regional representatives throughout the country. The Northeast Region includes Delaware, along with eleven other states from West Virginia to Maine.

In addition to regional committees, NACD also has Foundation Committees that direct NACD activity related to District Operations and Member Services, Communications, Legislative Affairs, Stewardship and Education, and Natural Resource Policy. Each committee is made up of ten NACD board members from different states, to provide representation from throughout the country for each priority area. Delaware is currently assigned to the Communications Committee.

• NACD has established a strong voice on soil, water and other natural resource concerns at the national level. Visit their website at  nacdnet.org  to find guides and resources to support the districts, information about grant opportunities, upcoming events, federal policy, etc.

Associations offer some tangible benefits—such as products, services, information, and discounts—as well as many intangible benefits, such as networking, a sense of community and common purpose, and even the opportunity to volunteer. The traditional benefits that most associations provide include:

From “ Why Do Associations Exist ”, by Steve Rich at ASHA

The Delaware Conservation Partnership in each state is made up of the conservation districts and DACD, NRCS and DNREC.

While these certainly aren't the only partners that the districts work with, these organizations are bound together through agreements at the local, state and national level (for NRCS) and through local and state agreements and by Delaware code (in DNREC's case).

A memorandum of understanding was executed between USDA and Conservation Districts at the time of its organization. This Mutual Agreement and the Cooperative Working Agreement allows the District to utilize the technical service of NRCS.

An effective core partnership ensures smooth delivery of conservation services to landowners and communities throughout the state.

On April 27, 1935 Congress passed Public Law 74-46, in which it recognized that "the wastage of soil and moisture resources on farm, grazing, and forest lands . . .  is a menace to the national welfare" and established the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) as a permanent agency in the USDA. In 1994, SCS’s name was changed to the Natural Resources Conservation Service to better reflect the broadened scope of the agency’s concerns. In doing so, Congress reaffirmed the federal commitment to the conservation of the nation's soil and water resources, first made more than 80 years ago, that continues to this day. To read more about the history of NRCS click here:  A Brief History of NRCS 

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) draws on a long history of helping people help the land. For more than 80 years, NRCS and its predecessor agencies have worked in close partnerships with farmers and ranchers, local and state governments, and other federal agencies to maintain healthy and productive working landscapes. The NRCS history website seeks to tell the story of this work. Below, it links to publications on a broad array of topics, significant original documents, and galleries of photos that document soil and water conservation in the United States.

 Visit the Delaware NRCS website. 

DNREC- DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL  

DNREC is the administrative agency within Delaware that has oversight of Delaware’s Conservation Districts.

DNREC also has a wide and diverse range of responsibilities. The Department is responsible for controlling everything from mosquitoes to toxic substances; from draining flood water to protecting wetlands; and from managing parks to cleaning up hazardous waste dumps. Basically, the responsibilities of the Department can be grouped into four categories: 

All of the Department’s Divisions have programs and responsibilities that relate to each of these four goals, and most programs contribute to several of the goals simultaneously. The areas of professional expertise complement each other.

Visit DNREC's  Conservation Programs page  and their  Conservation Districts page .

A number of partners and programs are listed in the DACD Supervisors Handbook, including:

• State Conservation Cost-Share Funding
• NRCS Cost-Share Funding
• Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP)
• Nonpoint Source 319 Funds
• Chesapeake Bay Funding
• 3921 Funds
• Resource Conservation and Development Funds
• PL83-566 Funds
• And many more!

Cooperative Working Agreements address:

A number of federal agencies are involved in conservation in some capacity and make natural partners with conservation districts. In Delaware, some of these agencies include:

Local governments and municipalities 

County governments have a representative on District Boards (Sussex County Council, Kent County Levy Court, New Castle County Executive Office)

Conservation Districts have partnered on many projects with non-governmental organizations like The Nature Conservancy, Center for the Inland Bays, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, ShoreRivers, Delaware Nature Society 

Conservation Districts staff and board supervisors are also leaders with the Delaware Farm Bureau, Delaware Rural Water Association, American Water Resources Association- Delaware Chapter, Soil and Water Conservation Society- Pocomoke Chapter…

Delaware’s Conservation District Employees Association has a mission to “strengthen and promote the conservation district programs by providing assistance, information, and representation and by supporting the professionalism of conservation district employees.”

“A memorandum of understanding (MOU) is, concisely, a written agreement.

MOUs specify mutually-accepted expectations between two or more people or organizations as they labor together toward a common objective. And here are two other touchstones of MOUs -- generally they're not legally binding, in part because neither party wants to deal with the ramifications of a binding agreement, and they don't involve the exchange of money.

MOUs hold a lot of potential power because of the time and energy they take to plan and write. They require the parties to come to some sort of mutual agreement, and in order to do that, they have to take stock of their needs and wants and put them to paper.”

From “ How a Memorandum of Understanding Works ” at howstuffworks.com. Read more in the link about MOUs and how they differ from a contract.

FSA = Farm Service Agency

USFWS = US Fish & Wildlife Service

USGS = US Geological Survey

DNREC = Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control

DDA = Delaware Department of Agriculture

DU = Ducks Unlimited

TNC = The Nature Conservancy

NASCA = National Association of State Conservation Agencies

CIB = Center for the Inland Bays

DNS = Delaware Nature Society

PDE = Partnership for the Delaware Estuary

DCA = Delmarva Chicken Association (formerly the Delmarva Poultry Industry)

Delaware has many examples of successful partnerships! A few examples include:

Delaware’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan involves the coordinated efforts of many natural resource partners and stakeholders throughout the state to set nutrient goals, identify the practices needed to reach those goals, work with landowners to adopt or implement practices, as well as track and report progress.

Tax Ditch Organizations are groups of volunteers that manage and maintain tax ditches throughout the state. They work with the Districts and DNREC to provide technical expertise and financial assistance for this critical drainage infrastructure.

The Delaware Soil Health Partnership has provided extensive education and outreach on soil health to Delaware Farmers. Conservation Districts, NRCS, University of Delaware, Delaware State University, NE SARE, DNREC and others have cooperated to hold workshops, field days, conferences and virtual events to help farmers increase their use of cover crops and no-till management. The Sussex Conservation District has also created an Air Seeder Program to provide a cover crop seeding service for farmers in the county and establish cover crops earlier in the season.

Using locally-led conservation typically involves a sequence of steps so that the entire community is involved in both planning and implementation. These steps include:

Every step in this process helps accomplish community goals. Involvement breeds commitment, and projects built on a locally-led process will have local benefits that the community can both experience and be proud of. These steps can be incorporated with the  conservation planning process  to accomplish community-supported conservation planning on a variety of scales

 https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/technical/nra/?cid=nrcs144p2_015753 

• " How to Build Effective Conservation Partnerships " by Mike Brown for NACD's Did You Know blog series
• " What is NACD? " Powerpoint Presentation
•  Delaware's Phase III Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan 

• How does your district work with the partners listed in today's topic?
• Are there other potential partners that the district isn't working with currently?
• Is there anything you'd like to know about NACD, DACD or any of the partner relationships that isn't addressed in this module?