Real Dirt: For NRCS’s 90th, It’s Time to Get Back to Our Roots

How Honoring Hugh Hammond Bennett’s Legacy is the Key to Unlocking Modern Funding and Resilience

This year, we mark the 90th anniversary of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). But before it was the NRCS, before it was even the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), it was the Soil Erosion Service.

Its leader wasn’t a politician or a bureaucrat. He was a soil scientist: Hugh Hammond Bennett.

His mission was simple, radical, and born of crisis: to stop the dust from blowing and the soil from washing away. He didn’t just write reports; he demonstrated. He proved that science-based conservation practices could hold the land together. His entire ethos was performance-based erosion control—using the right practice, in the right place, for the right reason, and proving it worked.

Ninety years later, we face a new crisis: not only blowing dust, but catastrophic post-fire flooding that strips watersheds to the bedrock. The scale is immense, but the solution remains rooted in the same principle Bennett championed: effective, performance-based erosion control is the absolute foundation of watershed health, agricultural security, and community resilience.

We Have Strayed from the Demonstration Model

Somewhere along the way, we’ve too often prioritized process over performance. We check boxes for practice installation, but we lack the robust system to rigorously answer the critical questions:

• Did the practice actually perform as intended during a major event?

• How long did it last?

• Was it the most effective and cost-efficient solution for that specific soil type and slope?

Without this feedback loop, we risk wasting precious conservation dollars and, worse, creating a false sense of security for downstream communities.

Pre- and Post-Watershed Event Implementation

The modern manifestation of Bennett’s demonstration model is NRCS’s Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) is the agency’s continuous cycle of action and assessment, especially around watershed events.

1. Pre-Event Implementation is Our Best Defense. This is proactive conservation. It means using our soil maps and hydrologic models to identify exactly where a high-intensity burn will likely cause catastrophic erosion. It means installing practices before the rain comes:

• Applying mulch and hydromulch on critical slopes.

• Installing wattles and silt fences in predictable flow paths.

• Strengthening headgates and acequia infrastructure.

This work is the difference between a managed runoff event and a devastating debris flow.

2. Post-Event Assessment is How We Learn and Improve. After a rain event, we must become forensic soil scientists. This is where we build the modern "proof" that Bennett would have demanded:

• What practices held? Why did they work? (Document it!)

• What practices failed? Why did they fail? (Learn from it!)

• How much sediment was actually captured? (Quantify it!)

This data isn’t just academic. It is the key to funding and liability protection.

Performance Data is the New Currency for Funding

In an era of limited resources, funders—from the state legislature to federal agencies—are demanding proof of return on investment. They want to fund what works.

A robust, standardized system for monitoring practice performance does two critical things:

1. Unlocks Funding: It provides the irrefutable evidence that conservation investments save money on disaster recovery, protect water quality, and safeguard infrastructure. This evidence is what justifies millions in appropriations for programs like EQIP and conservation cost-share.

2. Guides Policy: It moves us from guesswork to data-driven decision-making. It allows us to create state-specific standards and specifications that are proven to work for New Mexico’s unique soils and climate, ensuring every dollar spent is more effective than the last.

A Call to My Fellow Conservationists

As we celebrate 90 years of NRCS, the best way to honor Hugh Hammond Bennett’s legacy is not just with cake and speeches. It’s by recommitting to his core, scientific principle.

It’s time to lead a modern-era return to the basics:

• For NRCS Soil Scientists: Advocate for monitoring and assessment protocols to be a standard part of every major conservation practice plan.

• For Rangeland Managers: Document the condition of your land pre- and post-treatment. Your field observations are invaluable data.

• For All of Us: Champion the need to invest in the capacity to do this work—the technical experts who can design these systems and the field crews who can implement and monitor them.

Hugh Hammond Bennett started with a simple demonstration that changed the nation. Our challenge—and our opportunity—is to do the same.

Let’s get back to our roots. Our soil, our water, and our communities depend on it.

Honor Bennett's legacy. Get your hands dirty.