This week, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service hails Earth Team Volunteer efforts throughout the nation during National Volunteer Week. Our theme, “Volunteers Improve Today for Tomorrow,” uses April 15-21, 2018, to show gratitude to Earth Team volunteers for their superb service to conservation.
The Earth Team is the agency’s volunteer workforce. This past fiscal year, more than 34,309 people donated 325,601 hours of service to NRCS. Volunteers worked alongside NRCS to provide resources to farmers and landowners to aid them with conservation – a service value of more than $7.8 million.
“Volunteers work closely with our staff, and play an important role in our state’s conservation work,” said NRCS Florida State Conservationist Russell Morgan. Forty-six Earth Team members volunteered 1358.75 hours for fiscal year 2017 in Florida.
Earth Team is a program that partners volunteers with NRCS employees. It was created in 1985 and offers opportunities to individuals 14 and older who are interested in volunteering to improve the nation’s natural resources. Earth Team volunteers help NRCS conservationists provide private landowners and others with a range of services, from conservation technical assistance to teaching and generating awareness about conservation through community projects.
Earth Team volunteers are invaluable as they expand NRCS efforts to help America’s producers protect and conserve their natural resources. Volunteers dedicate their time and talents to various conservation activities, from helping farmers prevent soil erosion, protect water resources and watersheds against flood damages, to improving the condition of grazing land, and enhancing wildlife habitat.
NRCS’s mission to “Help the People Help the Land” is strengthened by the passion Earth Team volunteers bring to the important conservation work they do every day. Learn more about the Earth Team Volunteer Program online at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/earthteam or by calling (toll-free) 888-526-3227. For more information on NRCS visit www.nrcs.usda.gov.