Water and Related Resources Long Range Plan

This Water Resource Long Range Plan outlines the way USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in New Jersey will provide assistance in the management of water quality and quantity. The goal of these actions is to meet society’s evolving needs and sustain healthy ecosystems. Although this plan emphasizes water related resources, it establishes a framework to guide NRCS integrated resource planning to address all resource concerns on a watershed basis. This plan recognizes that planning efforts must consider geographic, political, social and economic relations in order to successfully provide quality public service in water resource management. (Download entire draft report and figures.)

Management of water resources is a responsibility shared by many public and private entities. NRCS in New Jersey will continue to build upon its success in creating partnerships with other federal, state, county, municipal and private organizations. This collective approach provides for the best application of technical, financial, informational and management resources to address water resource needs.

The Water Resources Program of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in New Jersey is a composite of several program areas: Watershed Surveys and Planning (PL-06), Watershed Rehabilitation (WF-07), Watershed Operations (WF-08), Watershed Rapid Assessment (C0-01) and Emergency Watershed Protection (WF-16).

NRCS-NJ provides assistance through a local delivery system of New Jersey’s 15 soil conservation districts. NRCS works with an interdisciplinary team made up of such specialists as agronomists, biologists, engineers, economists, geologists, GIS specialists, landscape architects, sociologists, soil scientists, and others. NRCS-NJ also works with a locally-led planning process. NRCS-NJ works with State, County and local government and organizations to solve a variety of water-related problems via such activities as flood damage mitigation, soil erosion and sediment control, agricultural waste management, recreational development and fish and wildlife development.

During the last two decades, as a result of successive Farm Bills, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has been responding to numerous programs for individual on-farm natural resource conservation. Historically at the State level, area-wide and watershed-wide planning has been accomplished as a result of successive natural resource inventories for problem identification and prioritization. Examples of this activity in New Jersey include the Conservation Needs Inventory (CNI) and, more recently, the National Resource Inventory (NRI). Both of these inventories were conducted as part of a national inventory without having significant sample sizes for use at the state and sub-state level. New Jersey conducted the State Erosion, Sediment and Animal Waste Inventory (SESAW) in the mid-1980s. There has been no significant inventory since that time.

More recently watershed planning has resulted from a response to disaster-related events, most notably Hurricane Floyd in September 1999. Natural resource planning on an area-wide basis has not been the result of a well-thought-out process involving all the necessary Federal and State partners through a locally-led process.

It is the NRCS intent to develop an ongoing “conversation” (both formal and informal) with Federal, State and other agencies and organizations related to the role of the Natural Resources Conservation Service in water and related land resource planning in New Jersey. It further intends to identify needs for which NRCS has the expertise, interest and long-term program and management commitment to help solve through an interdisciplinary approach, locally-led natural resource planning process.

The following plan has been developed to communicate the objectives of each program area as well as to address how project activities will be scheduled and coordinated by NRCS-NJ.

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New Jersey Water and Related Land Resource Long-Range Plan - DRAFT (889 kb)

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Last Modified: March 03, 2006