Oklahoma Program Implementation Description

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Locally-Led Conservation Model (PDF; 93 KB)

Locally-Led Conservation

Locally-Led conservation is based on the principle that community stakeholders are best suited to identify and resolve local natural resource problems.  The Local Conservation Partnerships, with the Conservation District in the lead, coordinate the collection of public input from a broad range of local agencies, organizations, businesses, and individuals that have an interest in natural resource conditions and needs.  Local can mean a county, a portion of a county, a watershed, a multicounty region, or whatever geographic area is best suited to address the resource needs.

Locally-Led meeting are public meetings that are held at least once each year in every county.  The meetings are an opportunity to receive public input on natural resource conditions and needs within the community.  Extensive outreach efforts are initiated to ensure all landowners, agencies, organizations, tribes, and others interested in natural resource conservation are afforded the opportunity to participate and have their concerns heard. The attendees of the public meetings evaluate natural resource conditions in a Conservation Needs Assessment and establish broad conservation goals to meet those needs. These goals are then formed into a Conservation Action Plan around the natural resource issues and actions that the attendees want to see taken. Emphasis is placed on the resource problems and needs on which the groups are ready, willing, and eager to develop and begin implementation of a Conservation Action Plan.

Identify and Prioritize Needs

After the Locally-Led meetings, the District Conservationists convene Local Work Groups (LWG) consisting of representatives of Federal, State, county tribal, and local governments.  The LWG serves as a federal advisory committee and as such is limited to government representatives.  These Groups review the Conservation Needs Assessments and Conservation Action Plans from the locally led process and set realistic priorities for the county's conservation efforts.  Local Work Groups develop their ranking criteria based of the priority resource concerns.

Based on input from the Locally-Led process, the State Technical Committee selected resource concerns as priorities for Conservation Activities in Oklahoma. The top five resource concerns are:

• Plants – Plant Condition – Noxious and Invasive Plants - Eastern redcedar
• Water – Water Quality – Excessive Nutrients and Organics in Surface Water - Animal Waste
• Soil – Soil Erosion - Sheet and Rill - Cropland
• Soil – Soil Erosion – Classic Gully - Grazingland
• Water – Water Quantity – Inefficient Water Use on Irrigated Land

For additional information and assistance, contact your local NRCS Field Service Center.

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