Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
NRCS staffing cuts slow Vermont conservation, districts ask state for $2 million
Summary
Vermont conservation district leaders told lawmakers that NRCS staffing fell by nearly half this year, hobbling engineering, wetlands and watershed projects; districts have repurposed staff but estimate roughly $2 million in state funding will be needed in FY27 to restore essential planning and engineering capacity.
Michelle Monroe, policy director at the Vermont Association of Conservation Districts (VACD), told the House Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry Committee that staffing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has dropped dramatically, slowing flood mitigation, wetlands work and technical assistance to farmers.
"We are looking at NRCS numbers in the low sixties," Monroe said, characterizing the change as "almost a 50% cut" from the more than 100 NRCS employees the state had earlier in 2025. She credited the previous state conservationist for staffing gains but said the combination of deferred-resignation programs and reduction-in-force actions left key engineering and planning posts vacant.
That loss of engineers and specialized staff has practical consequences, Monroe said: emergency watershed projects from the…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
