Gaining Experience as District Conservationist

Angela Biggs, District Conservationist in the Harlan Field Office, is also the National Asian American/Pacific Islander Program Manager for NRCS. For the past five years, she has served as the Iowa Asian American/Pacific Islander Program Manager. Biggs considers the national special emphasis program manager duty an opportunity to help employees and managers alike. She believes the collateral position will give her opportunities to help in a number of national civil rights initiatives, including enhancing career development and advancement of Asian Pacific American employees in NRCS. 

Helping people help the land is a motto that Biggs takes to heart. Joining the NRCS in 2002, Biggs quickly became a certified conservation planner and was recognized for developing a process for more effectively using planning software. Because of her experience and willingness to assist others, she was appointed a member of a cadre of experts that trains and supports others to more efficiently use computer applications used in getting conservation practices on the ground. 

Biggs' conservation planning experience was proven in 2005 when a Conservation Security Program signup added additional planning requirements to existing workloads. "As part of a special CSP signup team, I wrote 111 CSP contracts that year," she said. "The work was hard, but the conservation results were very rewarding. I look at that experience as molding me into a better conservationist. The better I get at my job, the more I can help others.”