NRCS FIELD OFFICE TECHNICAL GUIDE

Technical guides are the primary technical references for NRCS. They contain technical information about the conservation of soil, water, air, and related plant and animal resources.

Technical guides used in each field office are localized so that they apply specifically to the geographic area for which they are prepared. These documents are referred to as Field Office Technical Guides (FOTGs). The FOTG is maintained in each NRCS field office as a compilation of technical knowledge, resource data references and conservation practice standards.

Appropriate parts of the Field Office Technical Guides are automated as databases, computer programs, and other electronic-based materials such as those included in these web pages.

Section I - General Resource References

This section provides general state maps, descriptions of Major Land Resource Areas, watershed information, and links to NRCS reference manuals and handbooks. This information helps people understand the natural resources within the field office service area and helps them make decisions about resource use and management systems. It also provides references or electronic links to researchers, universities, and cooperating agencies, as well as conservation practice costs, agricultural laws and regulations, and computer-based tools used in resource analysis.

Section II – Natural Resource Information

This section contains information, data, and interpretations about soil, water, air, plant, and animal resources. This information includes soils information; climatic data; cultural resources information; threatened and endangered species lists; ecological site descriptions; and forage suitability group descriptions.

Section III - Resource Management Systems and Quality Criteria

Quality Criteria are used to establish treatment levels necessary to adequately address natural resource concerns and human considerations that help provide sustained and enhanced use of natural resources.

Section IV - Practice Standards and Specifications

Section IV contains the standards for each of the conservation practices adopted for use within a State. Practice standards establish the minimum level of acceptable quality for planning, designing, installing, operating, and maintaining conservation practices. Practice specifications establish the technical details and workmanship required to install a practice on specific sites and the quality and extent of the materials to be used.

Section V - Conservation Effects

Conservation Effects provides background information on how the implementation of Conservation Practices affects each identified resource concern in the state.

Technical guides provide:

1. Soil interpretations and potential productivity within alternative levels of management intensity and conservation treatment (Section II);
2. Technical information for achieving objectives of the NRCS and decision maker (All sections);
3. Information for interdisciplinary planning for the conservation of soil, water, and related resources (Section III);
4. A basis for identifying resource management system (RMS) options and, when needed, guidance on options and components thereof (Section III);
5. Information on effects of resource management systems, acceptable management systems, and their component practices (Section V);
6. Criteria to evaluate the quality of RMS options and components thereof (Section III);
7. Standards and specifications for conservation practices (Section IV);
8. Information for evaluating the economic feasibility of conservation practices and resource management system options;(Section I)
9. Information for locating and identifying cultural resources and methods to account for their significance (Section II); and
10. Technical material for training employee’s, partners and third party vendors (All sections).