06/22/07 Growing list of conservation programs

The Washington politicians are talking about the new Farm Bill. The conservation programs provided in the 2002 farm bill have meant better than 13 million dollars a year to Idaho producers who signed up for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. Bob Bartholomew of the NRCS says CRP, the Conservation Reserve Program and EQIP are widely accepted but what about those lesser known conservation programs like Wetlands Reserve. BARTHOLOMEW "Quite frankly we don't have a lot of wetlands in Idaho, a lot of its been drained so it's a good opportunity to bring those back. Wildlife Habitat Incentives program another wildlife based program that pays cost shares. There was a new easement program called the Grassland Reserve Program in the 2002 Farm Bill. That offered easements as well as rental agreements for high quality rangelands." The Farm and Ranchland Protection program offers easements to land owners of some of the best farm soils in Idaho. NRCS works with an outside group like a land trust that pays half the cost of the easement with the agreement the land remains in farming and is not developed. BARTHOLOMEW "That's a great estate planning tool; allows a farmer when he's reaching retirement to pull some cash out of his place and still be able to sell it to maybe either his sell or another young farmer who can't afford to compete with developers for that ground." Your NRCS office has all the details on these programs and others. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott