04/10/07 FSA adds SAFE

The Farm Service Agency has a new program to address local conservation needs. It's called SAFE, State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement. It's a new program just unveiled by the Farm Service Agency. HAMMON "A federal-state-private industry partnership to take land that would normally be enrolled just in our normal CRP program and provide extra wildland habitat enhancement. There's no minimum acres, you can offer as large or small a parcel as you want and payments would be very similar to what we already have in CRP. Idaho State FSA Director Wayne Hammon says the federal government puts up the money, the state through the Department of Fish and Game and private organizations will provide a lot of the leg work in riparian areas or zones where habitat improvement is needed. Hammon says Idaho can enroll up to six thousand 300 acres in SAFE. HAMMON "What we have to do between now and the end of summer is how we're going to distribute those acres, what kind of wildlife are we going to look at and what the payment structure is going to look like and all those kinds of things." Hammon says producers who might be interested in SAFE should get in on the ground floor by contacting their local office. His plan is to have the Idaho program format approved so that contracts can be signed early next year prior to planting season. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott