The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is celebrating its 75th anniversary today.

NRCS was created as the Soil Conservation Service within the USDA on April 27, 1935, in response to the Dust Bowl’s devastation of agricultural land. The agency’s primary mission was to conserve soil on agricultural land.

In 1994, the Soil Conservation Service changed its name to the Natural Resources Conservation Service to better reflect its expanded role of protecting natural resources including water, air, plants and animals on private land.

“For the past 75 years, the NRCS has led the nation in protecting our natural resources,” said Don Gohmert, NRCS state conservationist for Texas.

“We have followed the lead of the first chief of our agency, Hugh Hammond Bennett, who envisioned the agency’s soil conservationists working one-on-one with producers on private lands and walking the land to develop a conservation plan with private landowners.”

Although programs and technology have provided many changes in the way NRCS delivers its services, Gohmert said working with private landowners to implement conservation practices remains NRCS’s main priority.

Texas’ natural resources, the conservationist said, have improved because of practices such as crop rotations, terraces, waterways, windbreaks, wetland restoration, no-till farming, buffers, dams, rangeland management, ponds and pest management.

“The agency’s rich conservation legacy has resulted in many benefits to the state’s citizens -- abundant food and fiber, clean water, clean air, productive soils, and open spaces to use and enjoy.”

For more information about NRCS in Texas, visit www.tx.nrcs. usda.gov, or visit the county USDA service center.