Lessons from ‘The Chief’

Roger Estlack, 

The Clarendon Enterprise

The first day of class set a high bar for the Clarendon College Ranch & Feedlot Operations program when it hosted the new chief of the National Conservation Resource Service (NRCS) as the first guest speaker of the semester Monday.

Colton L. Buckley was appointed to the position by President Donald Trump in May as the youngest person ever to lead the 91-year-old organization. At 32, Buckley brings with him an impressive resume and a desire to provide service to America’s ag producers.

Buckley was in Lubbock earlier in the day to speak at the Agricultural Water Sustainability Summit, but the chief made time to come to Clarendon’s RFO program for a simple reason.

“The people in this room are more important than any bureaucrat,” Buckley told the class. “You are the next generation of agriculture leaders.”

As part of the US Department of Agriculture, NRCS is the largest private land conservation agency in the world, Buckley said, and his focus is serving producers wherever they are and regardless of politics.

“We don’t look at what congressional district you’re in, and we don’t care if you’re in a red or blue state,” Buckley said. “My job is to get help to producers.”

The chief has refocused the agency, changing its motto from “Helping people help the land” to “Keeping working lands in working hands.” The agency focuses on protecting natural resources for future generations through voluntary programs and expertise in the field, and for Buckley it’s a personal mission as well.

The Gatesville, Texas, native was a teenager when the ranch operation his grandfather spent a lifetime building began running out of water.

“I watched as my grandfather had to face the choice of losing the herd or losing the house,” Buckley said. “I was 15 when I slapped my hand on the back of that cattle trailer.”

That early lesson in the importance of conservation led Buckley, at age 19, to become the campaign manager for Sid Miller when he successfully ran for Texas Agricultural Commissioner in 2014. He worked for Miller in the Texas Department of Agriculture and later became the chief of staff at NRCS before being named associate chief of the agency prior to taking the top job.

In addition to renewing NRCS’s focus, Buckley is working to modernize the agency’s programs and rebuild its staff after personnel reductions in 2025. The agency offers 168 programs, and more than 90 of them were out of date and past their five-year statutorily mandated review period. 

On staffing, Buckley said NRCS lost 24 percent of its employees to government efficiency cuts and 90 percent of those were people who worked directly with producers.

 “I’ve got more money to help landowners, but I’ve got to have human staff to do that,” he told students. “I’m picking folks who come off farms and ranches who face what you face and what your folks face.”

Programs focused exclusively on “green” goals have been canceled, and non-profits that work with NRCS are having to prove they are helping people, Buckley said.

The new chief has championed the concept of “one farmer, one file” to streamline paperwork between NRCS and its sister agencies – the Farm Service Agency and the Risk Management Agency. 

He’s also working on updating technology in agency offices to improve service delivery and so employees can certify field reports on tablets.

“We had 50 percent of field offices unable to get on the computer 50 percent of the time because the network and computers were out of date,” Buckley said.

Buckley took several questions from students about specific policies, and he encouraged them to talk to their representatives.

“It is so important that when you hear of policy changes that will affect you, that you engage with your elected officials from city councils and county commissioners to members of Congress and even members of the executive.” 

Buckley also had advice for RFO students on which college course to take to be successful and encouraged them to take traditional classes after finishing the ranch operations program at CC.

“Speech and communications are the most important classes you can take as part of a liberal arts education,” he said. “You’re going to have to talk to people – in marriage, interviewing for a job, asking for a raise, everything.”

He also said communication and hard work can lead to success.

“You may not always be the best dressed, best looking, or smartest person in the room,” he said, “but you can be the one that works the hardest and has the most integrity.”

The chief told students that his story is proof anyone can accomplish great things. 

“I grew up in a trailer house. My father was an abusive alcoholic, and my mother was a drug addict,” Buckley said. “Now I’m the chief of the world’s largest natural resource agency with a $10 billion budget, and I was hand-picked for this job by the man who sleeps in the White House.”