Congress passed the Soil Conservation Act, which created the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) within the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and declared that the federal government bore permanent responsibility for reducing water and wind erosion of the nation's soils. The SCS included more than ten thousand permanent and part-time employees, and utilized the labor of some 450 Civilian Conservation Corps units. The SCS also operated twenty-three research stations, where it studied the causes, extent, and prevention of soil erosion.
Before the creation of the SCS, soil conservation had not figured prominently in government policy and had been overseen variously by the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, by county agricultural extension agents, and from 1933 to 1935 by the Soil Erosion Service, a temporary agency in the Department of Interior. President Franklin Roosevelt transferred the Soil Erosion Service to the USDA in March 1935, only weeks before the SCS was created. The Great Depression, coupled with the massive dust storms that swept the country's southern Plains in the spring of 1935, compelled the federal government to address the urgent and related problems of the depressed agricultural economy and the squandering and mismanagement of the nation's natural resources.
The Soil Conservation Service was headed by Hugh Hammond Bennett, who had directed the Soil Erosion Service. Bennett had been advocating soil conservation since the early twentieth century. In 1928, he warned that soil erosion posed a "menace" to the nation's food supply and prosperity. In 1934, experts from the Soil Erosion Service estimated that more than 260 million acres of American cropland had been severely damaged by water and erosion. The following year, Bennett estimated that more than 50 million acres had been so severely damaged that they were no longer arable.
The SCS addressed the problem of soil erosion by creating "demonstration projects" in which the Service cooperated with landowners to implement conservation measures. The SCS assisted farmers in devising and implementing soil conservation plans for their land. In exchange for the landowner's agreement to cooperate for a five-year period and to contribute his labor, the SCS supplied technical advice, materials, and additional labor. The Service urged farmers and ranchers voluntarily to plant ground cover vegetation to protect vulnerable soils, to rotate crops and allow fields to occasionally lie fallow, to build terraces and use contour plowing to retain soil moisture, and to refrain from planting crops on highly erodible land.
Although more than fifty thousand farmers participated in SCS demonstration projects, attacking the widespread problem of soil erosion one farm at a time was costly and inefficient. In 1936, therefore, the SCS published a model statute that would enable farmers to create a soil conservation district in their vicinity, which could stipulate land use practices within the district. power to require landowners to comply with district regulations, and soil conservation efforts remained largely voluntary.
In 1935 USDA managers began to search for ways to extend conservation assistance to more farmers. They believed the solution was to establish democratically organized soil conservation districts to lead the conservation planning effort at the local level. To create a framework for cooperation, USDA drafted the Standard State Soil Conservation Districts Law, which President Roosevelt sent to the governors of all the states in 1937. The first soil conservation district was organized in the Brown Creek watershed of North Carolina on August 4, 1937.
After the 1935 act, the Soil Conservation Service expanded its program nationwide with a several-fold increase in demonstration projects. Labor provided by CCC, the Civil Works Administration (CWA), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) supported this work. SCS’s technical experts advanced scientific understanding of erosion processes and developed effective conservation practices. In 1936, the agency assumed responsibility for performing surveys and devising flood control plans for selected watersheds under the Flood Control Act of 1936. In 1938, a major reorganization made SCS responsible for administering drainage and irrigation assistance programs, the snow survey and water supply forecasting program, as well as other programs, making SCS the USDA’s lead private lands conservation agency.
As early as 1935, USDA managers sought to extend conservation assistance beyond experimental sites. The Standard State Soil Conservation Districts Law fostered local participation, and nearly three thousand districts were created to work with farmers. Over the years, SCS grew to include soil surveys, maps, and a Plant Materials Center that identified plants useful for windbreaks, erosion control, and restoration. The surveys described soil attributes, moisture, texture, slope, erosion, and chemistry, and maps showed soil distribution across areas. More than one billion acres were mapped, and many more were added each year.
The Soil Conservation Service became involved in a comprehensive system of land-resource conservation, analyzing alternative soil-conservation methods and management practices for various cropping systems. Practices included no-till and minimum-tillage farming, contour plowing, terracing, strip cropping, stubble mulching, and efficient fertilizer use. On rangeland, SCS pioneered range inventory methods that integrated ecological principles with practical management. Hundreds of millions of acres were restored or stabilized, and land users gained access to the latest information on crops and their management. The agency also supported wildlife conservation, recreational land use, and campaigns to prevent land-disturbing activities.
In 1994, Congress renamed the Soil Conservation Service the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to reflect the broader mission. Since then, NRCS has expanded responsibilities for administering financial assistance for conservation programs and increased the overall amount of funding available for conservation. The evolution of the agency also included the development of the Wetland Reserve Program, Stream Corridor Restoration efforts, and the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which provided long-term rentals for cropland set aside for vegetation. The Plant Materials Centers continued to focus on native seeds and plants for prairie and wetland restoration, and NRCS worked with the National Park Service to enhance native flora for parks.
Today, the NRCS continues the conservation legacy established in 1935 by Hugh Hammond Bennett, applying science-based tools across agronomy, forestry, engineering, economics, wildlife biology, and more. The agency emphasizes a holistic approach: assess land resources, identify problems and opportunities, integrate multiple scientific perspectives, and develop a conservation plan for the entire property in collaboration with land users. The NRCS philosophy remains: conserve resources while reconciling land-use goals with landowners’ objectives, thereby contributing to watershed and regional quality of life.
To get started with NRCS, stop by your local NRCS field office. NRCS provides free technical assistance, including resource assessment, practice design, and resource monitoring, and can guide you through the AD 1026 application to ensure a conservation plan is in place before farming lands with highly erodible soils. Applications for most programs are accepted continuously, but they’re considered for funding during different ranking periods. You’ll need an official tax ID, a property deed or lease to show control of the property, and a farm number. If you don’t have a farm number, you can obtain one from USDA’s Farm Service Agency. NRCS will evaluate applications and rank them according to local resource concerns, conservation benefits, and applicant needs. Upon signing the contract, you’ll receive standards and specifications and a timeline to implement the plan.
The Soil Conservation Act of 1935 established the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), later renamed to NRCS in 1994. Its mission remains to improve, protect, and conserve natural resources on private lands in the United States. For more than 80 years, NRCS has worked in close partnerships with farmers, local and state governments, and other federal agencies to maintain healthy and productive working landscapes. The Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) began in 1977 as a periodic assessment of natural resources on nonfederal land and has evolved into an annual or continuous inventory since 2000.
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