08/06/07 Equipping Yourself To Conserve

Equipping yourself to conserve. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Ag producers know the value of conservation and sometimes it requires a bit of help. That's where the National Resources Conservation Service comes in. The NRCS has many programs available throughout the northwest including the EQUIP program. Justin Mount is with the NRCS office in Wenatchee, Washington. MOUNT: The National Resources Conservation Service has the voluntary Environmental Incentive Program and we want to reach out to private working lands that may include irrigated orchard, range or private forest lands to help people implement best management practices. Mount is urging early sign ups for the program and says you need to contact your local office. MOUNT: This is a nationwide program. Here in Washington State and specifically in the central area of the state we will be taking sign-ups through August of this year so it's important for people to contact their local NRCS office if they are interested in applying for the EQUIP program. Conservation is the key word and according to Mount that can be any number of projects. MOUNT: For example on an irrigated orchard we might help a grower replace a corroded steel mainline or upgrade a dilapidated water box or possibly do an irrigation system upgrade to promote overall productivity and resource conservation. And we can also do similar things with resource concerns in forestry such as thinning and pruning because we have a lot of unnaturally high fuel loading in our forests here in Central Washington. Once your application has been received and reviewed Mount says it will take some time to get an answer back. MOUNT: Applications will typically  the following spring we will be ranking and letting people know how you fell out in the ranking, if you got funded or if you were deferred for future funding cycles. So when someone applies in the fall or late summer of '07 they could expect to hear something by February or early March of 2008 if they applied in the fall of 2007. Visit the NRCS website for more information. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network. http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/