CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Ivan Dozier was named to the position of state conservationist for Illinois’ Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) effective April 23, making him the go-to person for Illinois farmers looking to add federally-funded conservation programs to their operations.

“Mr. Dozier has firsthand experience at leadership positions for the agency,” said Paige Buck, NRCS state information officer. “He’s familiar with NRCS programs and federal policies, and he has well-established relationships with key partners and staff. 

He’ll hit the ground running.”

A 28-year veteran of NRCS in positions such as soil scientist and conservationist and district conservationist, Dozier has served for the past eight years as assistant state conservationist for programs.

“I am honored to take on this challenge and to continue working with so many talented people here in Illinois,” said Dozier, who has also served as national president of NRCS’ American Indian and Alaska Native Employee Assoc.

The state conservationist coordinates USDA-NRCS conservation efforts throughout Illinois, serving to supervise state NRCS leadership personnel and act as a liaison between individual landowners and NRCS offices. The position is also charged with “customizing,” or adapting available NRCS conservation programs to better suit the requirements of the state’s farmers and ranchers.

“When it comes to the financial assistance programs, our core program is Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA),” said Dozier. CTA provides technical assistance to land users, communities and government in planning and installing conservation practices.

“Our people are out there offering expert advice on conservation and specifically what practices (landowners) should put in. Once you have identified the problems and done the planning, the next step is to be able to get financial assistance to help get conservation practices on your land.

“EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) is the No. 1 program we have here in Illinois. It’s the most diverse because it can fix a wide variety of problems, from forestry to wildlife to water quality, soil conservation, livestock management issues, air quality and others. More dollars are directed from the EQIP program to landowners than any other program; this year when it’s all said and done, we’ll have $12 million available to Illinois ag producers for EQIP,” he said.

Dozier begins his new role at what he calls a critical time for agriculture and conservation, especially with formation of the new federal farm bill.

“From the markups I have seen, it looks like there is still a great deal of interest in voluntary conservation. I think we might see some cuts – everyone will see cuts because we can’t continue with government spending as it is,” said Dozier, just hours before the Senate announced its markup of the 2012 farm bill, which slashes current levels of support for conservation by $6.3 billion.

“There may be some streamlining by combining some of (NRCS’ conservation) programs. I think we can deal with that. We’ve been fortunate to have many different conservation programs, but if they combine them in the right way (with) flexibility within the state to focus dollars where we need to, we could end up with something even better than we have right now.”

U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) was critical of the Senate’s proposed slashing of funds for conservation, calling this “the wrong time to be making these drastic cuts to conservation.” Kind also stated that coupled with rising commodity prices driving highly erodible land back into production, support for conservation programs is more important than ever.

Dozier agrees, acknowledging that part of his job is convincing producers to keep marginal land out of production. “I think there is always a desire, a pressure to (use all available land for planting) when prices are high. People start looking at (marginal) areas and thinking about what they can do to bring them back into production,” he said.

“I think we need to balance production and conservation and make sure people know they are not only compatible goals, but absolutely necessary.”

The state conservationist comes into his job also concerned about environmental matters affecting farming that stretch beyond the fence lines of individual operations, such as the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

“(Scientific evidence) points right here to Midwest agriculture as being (a main) contributor to the hypoxic zone,” Dozier said. “We hear concerns about air quality and water quality, things that go beyond the boundaries of an individual farm or county, or even state.”

He takes the reins of state conservationist from the retiring Bill Gradle, who brought Dozier to the NRCS office in Champaign eight years ago.