Tennessee Bulletin Number 450-06-1

June 29, 2006

Subject: TCH - Guidelines For Conservation Practice Documentation

Purpose: To provide information on Guidelines for Conservation Practice Documentation.

Expiration Date: September 30, 2007

National Headquarters issued guidance about 2003 for states to develop a Statement of Work (SOW) for each standard in the Field Office Technical Guide (FOTG). Tennessee is slowly adopting the new Statements of Work. They were originally developed for Technical Service Providers (TSP's) to specify the planning and application deliverables. At the same time, states were also developing technical guidance for the field on planning and application documentation and business tools requirements, which is essentially the same as an SOW. The Tennessee State Technical Guide Committee (STGC) recommended use of the same document for both the field and TSP's. These Tennessee Statements of Work are contained in the electronic FOTG for the most commonly used standards, but have not been developed for all standards applicable in the state.

The Tennessee STGC also felt that the Statements of Work were too cumbersome for the field to reference, and that abbreviated guidance should be developed so the field could easily reference the basic requirements when planning and applying conservation practices. Attached is the guidance developed for the 70 most commonly applied practices in Tennessee. In time, the same guidance will be completed for all conservation practice standards in the state.

This abbreviated guidance outlines practice documentation and business tools requirements for conservation planning and application. This guidance identifies tools and documents that some in the field may not be completely familiar with. The intent is to identify the training needs and schedule delivery to employees and partner employees to bring the field up to date as soon as practical. The assistance of managers and supervisors will be needed to identify training needs. In addition, many other steps are being taken to revise job sheets, improve narratives, install needed software, and develop templates that will meet the intent of the requirements. These efforts should make the process easier and less time consuming.

Realizing that the field has a limited amount of time to plan and apply practices, the documentation requirements and business tools should only be those necessary to properly make decisions with the landowner and to plan and certify the practices. With millions of dollars of technical and financial assistance provided through NRCS and our partnership each year in Tennessee, we need to assure that each conservation decision is a quality, technically sound process for the clients served.

Your assistance in implementing this process is greatly appreciated.

/s/

JAMES W. FORD
State Conservationist

Enclosure

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