Jackie Hendry: Hunter Roberts is South Dakota's Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources. But recently, Governor Kristi Noem announced a merger between his department and the state's Department of Agriculture. This will form the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Hunter Roberts will oversee this new department, and today he joins us by phone to explain what this means moving forward.
Secretary Hunter Roberts, welcome to In The Moment. Thanks for being here.
Hunter Roberts: Thank you very much, Jackie. I appreciate the invitation to speak with your audience.
Jackie Hendry: For folks who aren't too familiar with the purview of each of these departments when they were separated, maybe the Department of Agriculture seems pretty straightforward. It's the state largest industry, working to protect the state's ag workers. We want to shelf that for now, and have you tell us about the original mission of what was the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Hunter Roberts: Well yeah, certainly. I will be happy to do that.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, our primary goal or duty is to protect the public health and the environment, through environmental monitoring, and natural resource assessment. We also have some finance incentives that we provide to projects, and to communities on core wastewater, and water infrastructure. That's our primary duties at the Environment and Natural Resources, and to be frank with you, that's not changing. The new department will still be required to do those things.
Jackie Hendry: I've seen, in response when this news broke last week about these two departments merging, some folks wondering if maybe the mission statement of the two departments is somewhat at odds. And now, they're merging together. How would you respond to something like that?
Hunter Roberts: I guess that's not the way I see it. I think we're one state. Yes, the Department of Agriculture is trying to increase agriculture, that's one of the things, and support agriculture. But frankly, I think agriculture, and conservation, and saving resources all goes hand-in-hand.
Certainly, with the new department the plan would be to utilize and work all those together. I don't think that they work against each other. I think if the rules and regulations are followed correctly, and enforced correctly, that we can have all three of those.
Jackie Hendry: Talk to us, for folks who aren't familiar with you and your work outside of this department, some of your experiences beyond this department in maybe both of these two spheres, as they come together?
Hunter Roberts: Okay, good question. I guess, early on in my time in state government, after getting done with law school, I was energy policy director at the Governor's Office of Economic Development. There, I worked on everything from ethanol, to traditional fuels, to blender pumps for ethanol, things of that nature. I was the one that ran and started the blender pump program that helped get a bunch of ethanol blender pumps across the state.
From there, I moved to Governor Daugaard's office, where agriculture was one of the agencies I was the liaison for, and led the policy discussions on. On top of that, also DE&R was one of my agencies I worked with, Department of Transportation, and Game, Fish, and Parks. Certainly, the natural resource conservation side is something that I've worked on all my life.
In the meantime, when we moved back to Pierre, my wife and I, and started a family. My dad, he's a fourth generation South Dakota farmer and rancher. We had an opportunity to buy a partner of his out, so we did that. I guess, I've been fully engaged in the ranch and farm side of things, since we moved back to Pierre. Before then, I was run a few cows with my dad type of thing, but now we're fully engaged, and sharing in the farming and ranching duties with that.
I've been with DE&R since August 5th of 2019, so a little over a year. Right when we're getting our feet underneath from us good, we get to take on another challenge. Very excited about where things are going. This week, started meeting with the Department of Agriculture leadership. My DE&R team, we're going to get us all together and meet in different groups, and see where we can really dig in to see where there's duplication of effort, where there's overlap, and streamline those. Also, where are we missing things, between the two agencies?
I really think that working shoulder-to-shoulder with the Department of Ag and the Environment and Natural Resources Department, that we're really going to get some good synergies, and it's going to be good for the producers, and good for the citizens of the state.
Jackie Hendry: Speaking of challenges, of course with COVID-19, earlier in the spring we saw what can potentially happen to ag producers if a major packing plant, like Smithfield, closes down. Or, even has to reducer operations, to an extent. With the pandemic still continuing, what message do you have to the state's ag producers about this merger may or may not impact them, and the challenges moving forward?
Hunter Roberts: Well, I think the day-to-day things for ag producers, not much is going to change. Maybe some of the inspection side of things might change a little bit, but the day-to-day interactions with producers isn't going to change.
What I think will improve, and continue to go on as well, is advocating for ag producers. Federal policy is a huge driver in the ag world, and that will continue. Certainly, I'm fortunate in this new role to have Governor Noem, with all her ag policy chops and her experience, I think it's really a good fit and it's going to continue to speak well for our ag producers. I'm excited to be part of that team, carrying the torch for them.
Jackie Hendry: Our reporter Lee Strubinger has done lots of reporting in the past on CAFOs, concentrated animal feeding operations. He tells me there are more than 450 permitted CAFOs in the state. We're wondering what you can tell us maybe about the size of the team that will continue to monitor those kinds of operations? And, where that fits in, in this newly merged department's priorities, moving forward?
Hunter Roberts: Good question. We're not changing our regulations. We're going to continue to enforce our regulations on CAFOs, with the change.
What has changed since I got here is we've two and a half FTE to our CAFO program, and we're looking at moving a couple more to our CAFO program, to provide better service to those producers, and better turnaround on our permitting side of things. And, get out on inspections earlier. I think there are truly some synergies with the Department of Ag on the inspection side, where we might be able to utilize some of their inspection team to cover some of those duties.
I'm very excited about this merger from the CAFO side of things. I think that it's a win-win. We're going to be more responsive to complaints, and we're also going to be more responsive to our producers.
Jackie Hendry: We touched on this a little bit earlier in this segment, but I want to circle back to it. With the department's new name, there are some groups, for instance Dakota Rural Action, concerned about the word environment being removed from the department's new name. They worry this reflects the environment not being a key priority. How do you respond to concerns like that, as far as the department's new name and how it relates to priorities?
Hunter Roberts: Well, I would say I'm not concerned with that, the Governor's office is not concerned with that, it's just a name.
As we look to combine these two agencies, I'm quite certain that our mission statement will still include environment in it, so we're still committed to the environment. Frankly, if you watch commercials like I do sometimes, it sounds like South Dakota Corn's committed to the environment, too, and I feel a lot of our producers are there. We're fortunate, in South Dakota, to have a ton of family farms. The vast majority of our family farms that have been generational in nature, they get it. They know that you have to be environmentally responsible to continue on for the next generation. The environment is still going to be a big focus of the department.
Jackie Hendry: What else should people look forward to, as these departments get ready to merge? I believe that's happening in just a couple weeks. What's next on your calendar?
Hunter Roberts: Well, if I could bounce back to that last thing. I want to state that Governor Janklow called the DE&R, was actually the Department of Water and Natural Resources at one point, so we've had a few different names in the past. Before that, I think it was the Environmental Quality, or something like that. So the department's changed a few names, and environment hasn't always been in our history.
Back to your question on what's next, we're having these team meetings, leadership meetings, to figure out where we're best to utilize our resources amongst our department, and make a recommendation to the Governor on any changes we have. The Department of Ag has already proposed their budget, DE&R's proposed our budget, so we'll work to implement both those budgets, we're in the midst of budget season, as we get closer to the Governor's budget address in December.
Then, next step would be when legislative session comes ... In the meantime we'll be shuffling around a few staff, probably, and where people's offices are so we have teams together. But, the next step would be an Executive Order by the Governor, declaring what she wants in the merger of the two agencies. Then, once that's issued to the legislature when they begin in January, 90 days later it becomes effective. Realistically, we're looking at full implementation and merger not until April 1st, or so.
Jackie Hendry: I see. Speaking of legislative session, I'm curious. From this past year, are there any things that moved through, or maybe didn't move through, that you had hoped would? What are the conversations like with lawmakers, as it relates to these two departments?
Hunter Roberts: From the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' perspective, we're looking at maybe a fee bill or two. Looking at a few things where there is regulation that might not make sense, or might make sense in a different form, so those are the discussions we're having internally.
From the Department of Ag side, a big thing that's going on right now is implementation of the industrial hemp program. We're out talking to producers, we're working with USDA, there's been some back and forth there. Making sure that we get the right program in place, before planting season next year.
Jackie Hendry: Right. Some folks might be surprised to hear about two state departments merging like this, maybe they haven't seen that happen before. Take us back to the earliest conversations you were a part of, leading up to this merger, and leading up to you spearheading it?
Hunter Roberts: Well, back when I was in Governor Daugaard's office, there was a few very informal discussions about this very same thing, but never really got traction, never really got to the Governor's level.
But more recently, I would say about six weeks ago, the Governor's office reached out. I was in a unique role, since I've worked with this Department of Ag a few years before, in Governor Daugaard's office. About six weeks ago, Governor Noem's office reached out, and we started those conversations. They got a little more real about two weeks ago, and I guess that's what got us here today.
As we dug into, as I dug into, and the Governor's office dug into it, we just kept on seeing more positive connections between the two departments that could really help the systems of the state.
Jackie Hendry: I should have brought this up sooner, but a question I've seen is how this merging might help producers dealing with the different beef pricing issues that we've seen during the pandemic. Is that something you can speak to?
Hunter Roberts: Yes and no. I guess, it's largely a Federal and an international trade issue. With the merger, we'll continue to advocate for our producers. That's our job, to make sure that their voice is heard in Washington.
Jackie Hendry: Hunter Roberts, any closing thoughts before we let you go today?
Hunter Roberts: No. Just thank you for your time, Jackie, and I'm certainly looking forward to working with the citizens of the state, and our ag producers, to make the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources work for them.
Jackie Hendry: My guest has been Hunter Roberts, he'll oversee the new South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Hunter Roberts, thanks for taking time with us today, we really appreciate it.
Hunter Roberts: Thank you, ma'am.