NACD Annual Meeting 2025

"Bee the Change: Setting Projects up for Success and Changing Mindsets Towards Growth" This session will provide employees with an opportunity to learn from a panel of district employees who have implemented successful programs. Hear how they engaged their boards and partners to implement programming. There will also be an opportunity to hear from partners who are working with districts to hear their perspectives on empowering districts to grow and expand opportunities.

Meeting of the NACD Board of Directors members from the Pacific Region: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau. Perimeter seating open to all.

Join this informal session to learn how the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program and U.S. Department of Agriculture work together through the Sentinel Landscapes Partnership to protect critical agricultural lands and natural resources, strengthen military readiness, and support local communities. Representatives from the DOD REPI Program will share opportunities for conservation districts and their partners to engage with military installations and sentinel landscapes across the country to achieve shared goals.

*This session is closed and requires and invitation to attend. 

This session has been cancelled, but feel free to join one of the other breakout sessions at this time!

NEW Solutions has legislative authority to administer Experienced Worker Programs, for the purpose of utilizing talent, skills, and experience of individuals aged 55 and older to provide technical, professional, and administrative services. These programs support various Federal agencies, including USDA, DOI and others, in achieving mission-critical objectives.

Our partnership with these agencies strengthens the workforce to meet the nation's expanding conservation needs. As highlighted in a recent Agri-Pulse article, USDA’s reliance on external partnerships underscores the pressing need to address conservation staffing challenges—a need in which NEW Solutions is a recognized leader.

During this session, participants can learn about the following:
1. Leveraging Experienced Talent: How Experienced Workers Support Conservation Projects
2. Overview of key tasks undertaken by experienced workers, including conservation planning, mapping, disaster recovery, and staff training.
3. Highlighting the unique contributions of experienced professionals in specialized areas such as dam safety and emergency action planning, where their knowledge is indispensable.

In 2022, the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) and over 60+ member companies and organizations across the agricultural supply chain, launched Eco-Harvest a Scope 3 ecosystem services market program for agriculture that incentivizes producers to adopt regenerative agriculture. This presentation will highlight lessons learned ramping up to Eco-Harvest launch and conducting four years of projects. The speaker, Alana Pacheco, will focus on some of the challenges ESMC has faced in developing and executing projects and solutions to these challenges including opportunities for co-investment. She'll also provide a case study from one specific project in Kansas.

Pacheco will cover how Scope 3 programs, when designed with agriculture in mind, can provide significant opportunities for increased ecosystem services - including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, increase soil carbon sequestration, improved water quality and water use efficiency, and increased biodiversity. These projects can also help producers increase soil health, improve resiliency, and earn income for practice changes.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), established the Soil Carbon Monitoring Network (SCMN) in 2024. SCMN establishes locations where field-based information will be collected to assess and track trends related to soil carbon sequestration associated with conservation programs and management practices on cropland, pastureland, and rangeland across the country. Most of the sampling sites for the SCMN are on producer-controlled private lands.

Join the session to learn more about collaboration between NRCS staff, NACD staff, and local conservation districts for this effort. Collaboration will focus on assistance at the field office level to gain producer permission, clear cultural resource requirements, sample sites, and capture management information to complete data collection.

Meeting of the Association of Conservation Executive Directors (ACED) board members.