06/19/07 FSA has new wildlife enhancement program

It's called SAFE, State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement. That new program was unveiled earlier this spring 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." 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 decide 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 types of things." Not many people know about SAFE, it's only been around for a couple of months. Hammon says any agricultural producers who might be interested in this wildlife enhancement program should get in on the ground floor by contacting their FSA local office. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott