District Employees – Certified Conservation Planner

[David Williams]

Which states require technical conservation district employees to be Certified Conservation Planners? Do any states provide any incentives for district employees to become CCP? For those that require CCP certification, how long do you allow for the employee to obtain their certification? Are there any interim milestones required?

[Brian Farkas]

West Virginia does not require district employees to be certified conservation planners. State employees provide the bulk of such services to the districts and certification is a condition of advancement and salary increases.

[Jim Gillespie, Iowa]

In Iowa we have started training district, state and other partner staff on Conservation Planning. We have been told that they need to complete more training and gain experience before they can be “Certified Planners”. NRCS is to develop a set of skill levels to determine what parts of the planning process these folks can perform. We are waiting on those, they are to be completed soon.

[Brad Spicer]

Louisiana does not have any certification requirements for district technicians. We do however, encourage them to attend NRCS levels one and two
conservation planning training.
The training results in the districts having an increased capacity to assist their clientele and if the trained employees are interested they have a much better chance to be hired by the NRCS.
Brad

[Gary Moore]

Virginia has previously required SWCD Conservation Technicians to be certified NRCS conservation planner, we expected a new employee to be certified within two years of employment, additional time was available to get certified if situations warranted an extension. The VA Dept. of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) has developed its own conservation planning computer module and is developing a CP training curriculum for District technicians. This process is currently under development when fully operational it is anticipated that there will be timeframes associated with acquiring CP certification.

[Doug Thomas]

We do not require soil and water conservation district employees to become certified conservation planners. We do however encourage them to do so and provide along with NRCS training sessions during the year for them to get the required conservation planning training. After that we rely on NRCS through their process and system to get an employee to the point where they are certified.

[Colleen Meredith]

Conservation planning is built into career progression for all soil and water conservation district employees in Missouri. There are four levels called District Specialists (DS)I, II, III, and IV. To progress from a DSI to a DSII, the employee must have been with the district for one year and completed eight conservation planning modules online. To become a certified planner the employee must reach the DSIV level. This includes the field portion of the conservation planner training and these staff must submit a conservation plan for review. This is the same certification that NRCS goes through. The incentive for becoming a certified planner is the pay increases associated with the job progression steps. An employee must work for a soil and water conservation district for a minimum of 5 years to become a certified conservation planner (before they can become a DSIV). Interim steps are the DSII to DSIII requires district employees to pass 4 of 7 tests which include a mixture of technical and administrative capabilities (not necessarily interim step to conservation planning but a necessary step before they progress further). The DSIII to DSIV requires two of three categories completed (one of those is becoming a certified conservation planner). The online conservation planning modules and the certification are completed in cooperation with NRCS.

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