05/13/08 CSP sign-up extension

Washington Ag May 13, 2008 A sign-up for the Conservation Security Program that was to have ended this Friday, May 16th has been extended to May 30th. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Arlen Lancaster says to begin with, this sign- up came late and the timing was bad for producers. Lancaster: "In reaction to conversations I have had with producers and interactions we have had with producers across the country, we recognize it is a difficult time to get folks into the office to give them the time to gather their information, even though they have had two years of being in limbo on whether or not this sign-up was going to happen, we needed to try and accommodate some of these concerns. So we have extended the sign-up period to May 30th of this year. Would have liked it to be longer but in order to have a program this year that is really as long as we can wait before we close the sign-up and work with those producers to get them into their contracts so we can get that money out the door this year." Fifty-one watersheds across the country are involved in this CSP sign-up including the Lower Snake-Tucannon watershed in Washington. CSP is a voluntary conservation program that rewards producers with payments who are meeting the highest standards of conservation and environmental management on private agricultural working lands. I'm Bob Hoff.