USDA Forest Service

WASHINGTON, DC --(Ammoland.com)- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced developments in two popular USDA programs that will support conservation of working lands for the benefit of wildlife, water quality, and recreation.

The Secretary announced that USDA will accept 2.8 million acres offered by landowners under the 41st Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general sign-up.

The selections preserve and enhance environmentally sensitive lands while providing payments to property owners.

Additionally, USDA has approved eight additional states and one tribal government to participate in the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program (VPA-HIP), which encourages private landowners to provide public access to their lands for wildlife-dependant recreational opportunities, including fishing and hunting.

“USDA is committed to enhancing the great conservation legacy of our nation’s hunters and anglers to benefit current and future generations,” said Vilsack. “VPA-HIP and the CRP not only help achieve conservation goals, but also increase opportunities for hunting, fishing and other wildlife-dependant recreational activities by providing additional access to privately held lands. CRP assists private landowners and producers as they voluntarily protect their most environmentally sensitive lands.”

For this 41st general CRP sign-up, more than 38,000 offers were received on about 3.8 million acres nationwide. Enrollment of the 2.8 million acres will bring the total enrollment in the program to 29.9 million acres, leaving sufficient room under the 32-million-acre cap to continue enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, continuous sign-up and other CRP initiatives. The Secretary has asked FSA to continue to consider ways to use continuous enrollments to ensure CRP contains those lands that are most erodible, most valuable to wildlife or that otherwise ensure the program targets the most vulnerable acres.

Under CRP, farmers and ranchers plant grasses and trees in crop fields and along streams or rivers. The plantings reduce soil and prevent nutrients washing into waterways, reduce soil erosion that may otherwise contribute to poor air and water quality, and provide valuable habitat for wildlife. The CRP has restored more than two million acres of wetlands and associated buffers and reduced soil erosion by more than 400 million tons per year.

USDA selected offers for enrollment based on an Environmental Benefits Index (EBI) comprised of five environmental factors plus cost. The five environmental factors were: (1) wildlife enhancement, (2) water quality, (3) soil erosion, (4) enduring benefits and (5) air quality. The minimal acceptable EBI level for this sign-up was 221.

The average rental rate per acre for this sign-up is about $48. USDA implemented a number of measures including using additional EBI point incentives for producers to submit cost-effective offers and producer outreach activities to encourage competitive offers on the most environmentally sensitive lands. These measures will maintain the high environmental benefits while decreasing the historic cost of the program.

With today’s VPA-HIP announcement, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Montana, New Hampshire, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming join Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin as states participating in the program. Also participating are the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The total amount of VPA-HIP funds to be obligated in 2011 is $17.8 million with $4.6 million of that total being allocated as part of today’s announcement.

The VPA-HIP program expands existing efforts or develops new initiatives to encourage owners and operators of privately held farm, ranch and forest land to voluntarily provide public access for the enjoyment of wildlife-dependent recreation, including hunting or fishing, in exchange for financial incentives or other assistance under programs implemented by state or tribal governments. VPA-HIP is a competitive grants program that is only available to state and tribal governments. Funding may be used to expand existing public access programs, create new public access programs or provide incentives to improve wildlife habitat on enrolled lands.

Up to $50 million is authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill through VPA-HIP through fiscal year 2012.State and tribal grant recipients use the federal funding to provide additional landowner incentives or assistance in order to increase the number of acres available for public access.

To learn more about CRP, visit your FSA county office or online at www.fsa.usda.gov/crp.

For more information on VPA-HIP, visit http://www.fsa.usda.gov/vpa.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON --(Ammoland.com)- WASHINGTON – -(Ammoland.com)- The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership today welcomed a U.S. Department of Agriculture announcement regarding continued funding for the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program, popularly known as “Open Fields,” which is dedicated to expanding public access and conserving valuable fish and wildlife habitat on privately owned lands.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated that public access programs in 2011 will receive additional grants totaling $8 million toward the total of $50 million that is available for three years through Open Fields. Many of the grants funded in 2010, the first year of the program’s implementation, were for multiple years and will receive continued funding in 2011.

One of the signature issues of the TRCP, Open Fields was successfully included in the 2008 Farm Bill following the efforts of the TRCP and many TRCP partner organizations. Open Fields can open millions of additional acres of private lands to hunters and anglers by augmenting existing state access programs and encouraging new walk-in programs. The increased funding facilitates the creation or expansion of existing public-access programs or provides landowner incentives to increase sportsmen’s access and improve fish and wildlife habitat on newly enrolled lands.

“By allocating these millions of dollars to Open Fields, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is showing its support of practices that benefit fish and wildlife and public access to the nation’s private lands,” said Jennifer Mock Schaeffer, Farm Bill coordinator for the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies and chair of the TRCP Agriculture and Wildlife Working Group. “Without the USDA’s vote of confidence, these important conservation programs would not otherwise be funded.”

The $8 million to be made available in 2011 is in addition to the initial VPA-HIP monies approval for the program in 2010; approximately $11.75 million was awarded to 17 states last year following approval of these funds.

“Our nation’s hunting and fishing traditions are inextricably tied to the health of America’s privately owned farm, ranch and forest lands,” said Dave Nomsen, vice president of government affairs for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever and member of the TRCP Agriculture and Wildlife Working Group. “We appreciate Secretary Vilsack’s commitment to American sportsmen and our shared natural resources through his support of continued funding of Open Fields.”

Twenty-six states currently have public access programs for hunting, fishing and other related activities. Sportsmen are encouraging states and tribal governments to submit VPA-HIP applications for 2011 funding through the federal government’s grants portal to the Farm Service Agency for consideration.

“America’s sportsmen-conservationists already have demonstrated overwhelming support of the Open Fields program – and of similar private-lands conservation programs included in the 2008 Farm Bill,” said TRCP President and CEO Whit Fosburgh. “We offer the USDA our thanks for continuing to see that public access and fish and wildlife conservation remain priorities of the federal government, and we look forward to working to sustain funding for these crucial programs as the 2012 Farm Bill is deliberated in the months to come.”

• Learn more about Open Fields and other Farm Bill programs.
• Read more about the TRCP’s work on the Farm Bill.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the tradition of hunting and fishing. Visit: www.trcp.org

Farm Bill programs such as WHIP provide important resources so farmers and private landowners can conserve key fish and wildlife habitat for species like the lesser prairie chicken. Photo courtesy of USDA.gov/Marcus Miller.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON --(Ammoland.com)- Farm Bill programs such as WHIP provide important resources so farmers and private landowners can conserve key fish and wildlife habitat for species like the lesser prairie chicken.

Sportsmen are celebrating a victory with the announcement of new federal measures in support of private-lands conservation. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a final rule for the federal Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program that adds a new national priority to restore and enhance wildlife habitat – much of which is important to game species.

The new WHIP national priority is “to protect, restore, develop or enhance important migration and other movement corridors for wildlife.”

This new focus complements the four existing national WHIP priorities that focus on activities benefitting native fish and wildlife habitats, conservation of at-risk species, protection of declining or important aquatic wildlife and reducing the impacts of invasive species on fish and wildlife habitat.

Authorized under the 2008 Farm Bill, WHIP is a voluntary program for conservation-minded landowners who want to develop and improve fish and wildlife habitat on agricultural and private land. Since its establishment in 1997, the program has resulted in habitat improvements on approximately 6.5 million acres nationwide. The program provides cost-share funding to farmers, ranchers and private landowners for projects ranging from removing barriers to fish migration in New England to establishing native warm-season grasses in the Southeast.

The TRCP long has advocated for increased measures to conserve fish and wildlife habitat and hunter access in the Farm Bill and is pleased to see the USDA highlighting programs that improve fish and wildlife habitat, sustain our waters and conserve energy.

• Learn more about WHIP.
• Learn more about the TRCP’s work on the Farm Bill.

About:
The Mission of the Texas State Rifle Association is to protect and defend the inalienable rights of the individual Texan to acquire, possess, transport, carry, transfer ownership and enjoy the right to lawful use of firearms for self preservation, for the defense of family and property and the common defense of the Republic and the individual liberties of the people. Visit: www.TSRA.com

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON --(Ammoland.com)- On Sept. 14, the USDA announced a 4.3-million acre increase to the Conservation Reserve Program, a component of the Farm Bill that helps enhance private-lands fish and wildlife habitat important to sportsmen.

We want to thank those who made this possible by enrolling land in the CRP.

The addition of these millions of acres will maintain and enhance the landscape-level benefits that the CRP already has achieved over the past 25 years, including restoration of 2 million acres of wetlands and adjacent buffers and conservation of 170,000 miles of streams.

These activities have helped annually produce 13.5 million pheasants nationwide and 2.2 million ducks in the Prairie Pothole Region alone.

Under the CRP, farmers and ranchers implement conservation practices in previously cropped fields with highly erodible land and along streams or rivers, reducing the amount of soil and nutrients that wash into waterways, diminishing soil erosion that otherwise may contribute to poor air and water quality, and providing valuable habitat for fish and wildlife.

New CRP acres will enhance private-lands fish and wildlife habitat important to sportsmen. Photo courtesy of Missouri Department of Conservation.

At 31.2 million acres, the CRP program is nearing full enrollment – an outcome that the TRCP and our partners have advocated since the program’s inception.

The TRCP and members of our Agriculture and Wildlife Working Group are working to ensure the inclusion of the CRP and other conservation programs in the 2010 Farm Bill’s conservation title, the single-largest source of federal funding for private-lands conservation programs.

Learn more about the TRCP’s work to conserve private lands important to sportsmen through federal policy such as the Farm Bill.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions
of hunting and fishing. Visit: www.trcp.org

USDA Forest Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2010 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA will accept 4.3 million acres offered by landowners under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general sign-up.

The selections preserve and enhance environmentally sensitive lands, including wetlands, while providing payments to property owners.

“Interest in this open enrollment period was high, and I’m pleased that producers and landowners across the nation continue to realize the environmental benefits of enrolling land in the CRP,” said Secretary Vilsack.

For this 39th general sign-up more than 50,000 offers were received on more than 4.8 million acres, nationwide. Enrollment of the 4.3 million acres will keep the program enrollment close to the 32 million acre statutory cap, which will maintain and enhance the significant environmental benefits the program has already achieved. CRP’s 39th signup will bring the total enrollment in the program to 31.2 million acres, leaving sufficient room under the 32 million acre cap to continue enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, continuous signup and other CRP initiatives through FY 2011.

Under CRP, farmers and ranchers plant grasses and trees in crop fields and along streams or rivers. The plantings reduce soil and nutrients from washing into waterways, reduce soil erosion that may otherwise contribute to poor air and water quality, and provide valuable habitat for wildlife. Plant cover established on the acreage accepted into the CRP will reduce nutrient and sediment runoff in our nation’s rivers and streams. The CRP has restored more than two million acres of wetlands and associated buffers and reduced soil erosion by more than 400 million tons per year.

USDA selected offers for enrollment based on an Environmental Benefits Index (EBI) comprised of five environmental factors plus cost. The five environmental factors are: (1) wildlife enhancement, (2) water quality, (3) soil erosion, (4) enduring benefits, and (5) air quality. The minimal acceptable EBI level for this signup is 200.

The average rental rate per acre for this signup is about $46. USDA implemented a number of measures including using additional EBI point incentives for producers to submit cost-effective offers, and producer outreach activities to encourage competitive offers on the most environmentally sensitive lands. These measures will maintain the high environmental benefits while decreasing the historic cost of the program.

Under CRP, there are more than 31.3 million acres enrolled on more than 473,000 contracts. These 10 to 15 year contracts provide long term enduring conservation benefits in return for an annual rental payment.

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).

TRCP Commends USDA Decision to Fund Private-Lands Conservation Programs

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON, DC --(Ammoland.com)-The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership today commended a move by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund important private-lands conservation programs that help sustain valuable fish and wildlife habitat and enable access by hunters and anglers.

The USDA final draft crop insurance agreement invests billions of dollars in critical Farm Bill components such as the Conservation Reserve Program, America’s largest and most successful agricultural-lands conservation program.

The USDA decision generates $6 billion in savings, one-third of which will be dedicated toward deliverables that include increasing the enrollment acreage of the Conservation Reserve Program to the maximum authorized level of 32 million acres. The monies also will be invested in new and amended Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program initiatives and CRP monitoring.

“This far-reaching decision by the USDA marks a victory for agricultural-lands conservation and the sportsmen-conservation community,” said Tom Franklin, TRCP director of policy and government relations.

“These Farm Bill programs are crucial to our country’s ability to sustain private-lands fish and wildlife habitat – habitat that forms the bedrock of outdoor sporting traditions for millions of Americans.”

The Farm Bill is one of the nation’s most important pieces of legislation for soil and water quality and the fish and wildlife that require high-quality habitat. Its Conservation Reserve Program encourages farmers and ranchers to plant ground cover that bolsters soil, water and wildlife resources, improving habitat for waterfowl, upland birds and wild turkeys, and facilitates installation of filter strips and riparian buffers, sustaining water quality by reducing sedimentation and chemical runoff.

Through the CRP, private landowners have restored 2 million acres of wetlands and adjacent buffers and conserved 170,000 miles of streams, resulting in the annual production of 13.5 million pheasants nationwide and 2.2 million ducks in the Prairie Pothole region.

“The TRCP and our partners consistently have championed key components of the Farm Bill such as the Conservation Reserve Program,” Franklin continued, “and we appreciate the federal government’s willingness to invest in efforts that remain a priority for hunters and anglers.”

Yet the TRCP voiced continued concern about delays by the USDA’s Farm Service Agency in releasing regulations and funding for the Voluntary Access and Habitat Incentive Program, or “Open Fields,” which was authorized by Congress for the first time in the 2008 Farm Bill. Open Fields provides states $50 million in federal funds to create or enhance hunter-access programs on private lands and has been a flagship issue for the TRCP since the group’s inception.

Learn more about the TRCP’s work on the Farm Bill.

Read the TRCP report “Growing Conservation in the Farm Bill.”

Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations
and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions
of hunting and fishing.

South Dakota Fish, Game & Parks

PIERRE, S.D. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Today (Nov. 23) marks the first day for South Dakota landowners in the James River watershed to enroll environmentally sensitive land through a new program that will provide additional incentives to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

Through a unique partnership between the Game, Fish and Parks Department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, landowners have the opportunity to set aside agricultural acres that meet certain criteria into a Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP).

Plans call for the program to set aside 100,000 acres in the James River watershed that will improve water quality, provide flood control, reduce soil erosion, and provide recreation access. The CREP will give agriculture producers another option for managing their land for financial incentives that are up to 40 percent higher than the normal rental rate for CRP land.

The James River watershed is an area of critical importance to South Dakota wildlife, and is an area that can provide a valuable expansion of public access opportunities in the eastern part of the state.

“All lands enrolled in the CREP program will be open to public fishing and hunting,” GFP Secretary Jeff Vonk said. “The James River corridor has been a primary pheasant area for the past 60 years. We have the opportunity to produce valuable nesting cover for pheasants as well as other wildlife that depends on wetlands and grassland.”

“We have seen a reduction of 500,000 acres of CRP in the last five years. CREP will help mitigate those losses in an area where we can maximize benefits to upland nesting game birds like pheasants,” Vonk said. “In addition, certain tracts of expired CRP acres in the project area may qualify for re-enrollment in CREP.”

Sign up for the program begins on Nov. 23. Landowners interested in more information on CREP may contact the GFP District Office in Huron (605/353-7145), their local USDA service center, or a Pheasants Forever Farm Bill biologist (www.sdgfp.info/Wildlife/PrivateLands/PFBiologists.pdf).

“CREP is a win-win-win for agriculture producers, wildlife, and sportsmen,” Vonk said. “This program will provide an economically sound land management option for landowners, thousands of acres of habitat to benefit wildlife, and access to private land for hunters and anglers.”

Contact: Rocco Murano or Matt Grunig, GFP Huron Office (605/353-7145)

More information on the CREP program is available at this link to the Farm Service Agency Web site: www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=copr&topic=cep

Pheasants Forever

Saint Paul, Minn. – -(AmmoLand.com)- Pheasants Forever is expanding its Farm Bill Biologist program in North Dakota with the addition of two new positions created in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and local Soil Conservation Districts. Matthew Olson of Fort Ransom, North Dakota, is the new Farm Bill Biologist based out of Forman and Jeff Potts of Watertown, South Dakota, is the new Farm Bill Biologist based out of Dickinson.

Pheasants Forever’s Farm Bill Biologist program is designed to educate farmers and landowners – through one-on-one consulting – about the benefits of conservation programs (such as the federal Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP), as well as assist those farmers and landowners after programs have been implemented. Pheasants Forever first began employing Farm Bill Biologists in 2003 and now has over 45 Farm Bill Biologists working in seven states – Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Farm Bill Biologists have contacted and consulted over 28,000 landowners, resulting in the improvement of over 1.3 million acres of land for wildlife.

“These positions come at an especially critical juncture for North Dakota, where nearly 775,000 acres have expired from the wildlife-friendly CRP in the past five years and another 1.8 million acres are slated to expire in the next five years,” said Jim Inglis, Pheasants Forever’s Farm Bill Biologist Coordinator, “With continuous CRP practices and other conservation programs, landowners have numerous conservation options. The challenge has always been informing them, and these Farm Bill Biologists meet that challenge head on.”

Matthew Olson
A native of Fort Ransom, North Dakota, Olson joins Pheasants Forever after four years with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. An avid outdoorsman, Olson has an excellent knowledge of the Forman and surrounding area. Olson earned his B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Management from North Dakota State University. He is based out of the Wild Rice Soil Conservation District Office in Forman and can be contacted at (701) 724-3247 or via email at molson@pheasantsforever.org.

Jeff Potts
Potts joins Pheasants Forever after earning his B.S. in Wildlife Fisheries and Science from South Dakota State University. He already has extensive experience in the natural resource field, having worked previously with the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks as a wildlife technician and a land/habitat intern. Potts is based out of the NRCS office in Dickinson and can be contacted at (701) 225-3811 x118 or via email at jpotts@pheasantsforever.org.

Pheasants Forever also has a Farm Bill Biologist position in Jamestown, North Dakota. Steve Stensgard can be contacted at the Jamestown NRCS office (701)252-2521 ext. 129 or via email at SStensgard@pheasantsforever.org. For more information on Pheasants Forever’s Farm Bill Biologist program, contact Jim Inglis, Pheasants Forever’s Farm Bill Biologist Coordinator, at (419) 569-1096 or via email at jinglis@pheasantsforever.org.

About:
Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are non-profit conservation organizations dedicated to the protection and enhancement of pheasant, quail, and other wildlife populations in North America through habitat improvement, land management, public awareness, and education. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever has 125,000 members in 700 local chapters across the continent.

For additional information please visit www.PheasantsForever.org and www.QuailForever.org

Pheasants Forever

Saint Paul, Minn. --(AmmoLand.com)- Recently, high ranking officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture spoke at public forums in support of the Conservation Reserve Program’s (CRP) wildlife benefits and the need to protect the program’s legacy.

While the verbal support for CRP may signal that hunter’s messages are being heard within the halls of USDA, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever says now is not the time to rest easy.

Just last month, USDA announced that one of their policy options under consideration is to drop CRP enrollment to 24 million acres nationwide.

On Monday, October 5th, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack joined South Dakota Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in Bath, South Dakota for a Rural Issues Forum. At that event, the Secretary commented on the need for CRP to be at the program’s 32 million acre cap. He also suggested it was time for a reallocation of available acres to meet the demands of CRP practices like the very popular new State Acres For wildlife Enhancement (Conservation Practice 38), which reached its 50,000-acreage allotment in South Dakota many months ago.

On Wednesday, October 7th, Farm Service Agency Administrator Jonathan Coppess testified before the U.S. House Agriculture Sub-Committee during a hearing on conservation programs. Pheasants Forever’s Vice President of Government Affairs Dave Nomsen was in attendance for that hearing.

“Administrator Coppess reiterated Secretary Vilsack’s comments from South Dakota that USDA intends to keep CRP at, or nearly fully-subscribed at, 32 million acres. He also noted that SAFE and CREP sign-ups may be valuable tools toward that goal,” reported Nomsen. “I was also pleased to hear that a general CRP sign-up may be available next year. With 3 million acres expiring on September 30th of this year and another 5 million acres expiring next year, it was welcome news in support of conservationist’s favorite program.”

The USDA’s Farm Service Agency has asked the public for comments on CRP. That comment period is quickly coming to a close next Monday, October 19th. If you haven’t participated in this important process as yet, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have some simple suggestions for what to communicate by sending an email to CRPcomments@tecinc.com.

• Request USDA implement CRP at its maximum acreage of 32 million acres, and that USDA request additional authority for an expanded CRP of at least 40 million acres from Congress
• Call for a new CRP General Signup
• Call for new authority for Continuous CRP programs such as CRP SAFE and CRP Upland Bird Habitat Buffers
• Ask that all Continuous CRP including CRP SAFE and CRP Upland Bird Habitat Buffers, be made available to all expiring contract holders

RICHLAND, Tx.–-(AmmoLand.com)- Texas landowners had the opportunity last week to hear from a variety of experts on sustainable agriculture. Staff representing Syngenta, Texas Prairie Wetlands Project (TPWP), and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) conducted workshops to increase awareness of and participation in sustainable agricultural programs and practices.

Almost 100 private landowners and rice producers attended the workshops, held successively in Winnie, El Campo and Eagle Lake October 6th, 7th, and 8th, respectively. The objective of these workshops was to present area landowners with information regarding conservation opportunities as well as the latest in crop protection products from Syngenta.

“Landowner workshops are a great way to provide a diverse group of stakeholders with information on available products and services,” Matt Kaminski, TPWP Coordinator said. “These workshops stimulate questions and give us the opportunity to address a variety of concerns landowners may have.”

Ducks Unlimited, Inc., Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the USDA NRCS partnered to create the Texas Prairie Wetlands Project in 1991.

The TPWP provides cost-share assistance to private landowners for habitat enhancement, levee construction, and the installation of water control structures. It also provides biological and engineering assistance and a detailed management plan to private landowners.

The primary goal of TPWP is to restore, enhance, and protect shallow, seasonal wetland habitat on private lands within a 28-county focus area along the Texas Gulf Coast. Each year, these projects provide critical staging and wintering habitat for thousands of waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds and other wetland dependent species.

The TPWP works closely with rice producers to improve fields and infrastructure for water conservation, production, and habitat management. Recently, piggy-backing TPWP with USDA Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) has provided great incentives to producers to bring retired fields back into production. Adding Syngenta to that partnership was a logical step to increase effort and success.

Syngenta provided funding for the workshops, and new TPWP participants will be eligible for a rebate on Syngenta crop protection products Quadris and Quilt.

“This partnership creates a win-win situation for everyone,” Kaminski said. “An increase in rice production will increase waterfowl habitat on the Texas Gulf Coast.”

Arkansas Game & Fish Commission

JONESBORO, AR – -(AmmoLand.com)- Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Dave White announced last week that the NRCS has received 21,300 applications to participate in the new Conservation Stewardship Program. These applications cover an estimated 33 million acres, nationwide.

“NRCS has received enough applications to carry out conservation activities on more than twice the number of acres Congress authorized for CSP this year,” White said. “This incredible response shows that conservation-minded producers and landowners want to attain higher levels of conservation stewardship.”

David Long, private lands coordinator with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said that the new revamped conservation program in the 2008 Farm Bill has tremendous opportunity to conserve and increase farmland conservation. “This program rewards farm producers for addressing resource concerns, including wildlife. The program rewards farmers for undertaking additional conservation along with maintaining and managing existing conservation practices on the farm,” Long says.

Farmers can also receive enhancement practice payments, Long said. “Practices such as extending riparian forest buffers, patch burning pastures, creating shallow water habitat, establishing native grasses and legumes in 15 percent or more of their pastures, grazing management to improve wildlife habitat, extending filter strips and field borders, establishing pollinator habitat, prescribed burning, forest stand improvement, deferring crop production on temporary and seasonal wetlands, and flooding harvested grain fields, all providing significant wildlife benefits are eligible for payments,” he explained.

Payments are based on the complex of existing conservation practices maintained along any new enhancement practices implemented and are estimated to range from $12 to $22 per acre of cropland, nonindustrial private forestland $6 to $12 per acre and pastureland at $7 to $14 per acre.

More farm wildlife benefits possible from the new conservation stewardship program in ArkansasFarmers need to know that installing conservation practices like filter strips, quail buffers, riparian forest buffers and other practices under the FSA’s Continuous Conservation Reserve Program will increase their competitiveness in CSP in the future, Long said. “In addition, the Conservation Reserve Program provides yearly rental payments for 10 to 15 years along with other significant incentives to increase farm income,” he added.

The CSP should cause farmers to look not only at the CRP, but other USDA conservation programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentive Program, Wildlife Habitat Incentive program and the Wetland Reserve Program to establish a total conservation system on their farms that addresses all resource concerns which will increase their competitiveness in the CSP in the future. “CSP can offer an additional income stream on every eligible acre of the farm plus allow farmers to address all resource concerns to include wildlife,” Long says.

Congress capped the annual acreage enrollment nationally at 12,769,000 for each fiscal year. The final national and state-by-state numbers on acreage nationwide will be available in November 2009.

CSP provides financial and technical assistance to eligible agricultural and forestry producers to conserve and enhance soil, water, air and wildlife resources on their land, and encourages farm producers to voluntarily implement more conservation practices and improve, maintain, and manage existing ones.

Lands accepted into CSP include cropland, pastureland, rangeland and non-industrial private forestland. Individual landowners or operators, legal entities, corporations and Indian tribes are eligible to apply for CSP assistance.

Those who are not approved for funding through this first sign-up will have the option to participate in the second sign-up period, which is Oct. 1 through January 2010.

Pheasants Forever

Saint Paul, Minn. – -(AmmoLand.com)- Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever Farm Bill Biologists recently took a short break from meeting with private landowners to meet with legislators and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The meetings focused on the success of the Farm Bill Biologist program and the need for more Farm Bill Biologist positions in additional states to maximize wildlife habitat impact.

Farm Bill Biologists touting the program included Jason Selvog of Waite Park, Minnesota; Kelsi Niederklein of North Platte, Nebraska; Matt Morlock of Brookings, South Dakota; and J.D. Armstrong of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The foursome represent Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s improved model of conservation program delivery. Designed to educate farmers and landowners about the benefits of conservation programs, as well as assist those farmers and landowners after programs have been implemented, Pheasants Forever first began employing Farm Bill Biologists in 2003 and now has 36 Farm Bill Biologists working in six states – Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. In just over six years, Farm Bill Biologists have contacted and consulted 28,065 landowners, resulting in the improvement of nearly 1.3 million acres!

Primarily, Farm Bill Biologists work to accelerate enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and other Farm Bill conservation provisions that work with farm operations. Funding comes through diverse sources, including USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), so Farm Bill Biologists add wildlife technical assistance in USDA offices. Biologists met with NRCS officials, including Acting Associate Chief Ginger Murphy, Acting Associate Deputy Chief for Management Terrell Erickson and Chief of Staff Jason Weller. They discussed conservation issues with Jonathan Coppess, Administrator for the Farm Service Agency and Lynn Tjeerdsma, USDA’s Farm Service Agency’s Acting Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs. The Farm Bill Biologists also met with legislators, including Senator Al Franken (D-MN), Senator John Thune (R-SD), Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) and staff reps from the offices of Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Herb Kohl (D-WI).

“The way to create wildlife habitat on the landscape is by meeting with landowners one-on-one, listening to their desires and concerns, and then finding programs that best fit their situations,” Jason Selvog said, “Those same principles apply when we’re talking about expanding the Farm Bill Biologist program nationally – meeting one-one-one with policy makers and telling them how successful this model has been and where it can go with the right support.” Contacting over 5,000 landowners since 2004 has allowed Selvog, based out of Stearns County, Minnesota, to help landowners improve nearly 19,000 acres through over 850 conservation program contracts.

“There is no question that we have a very successful track record in delivering what we set out to do,” said Jim Inglis, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever Farm Bill Biologist Coordinator, “This program will grow in the states where it already exists, and will launch in new states. Getting our message to the nation’s capital will hopefully accelerate that process, which in turn accelerates the wildlife habitat mission of Pheasants Forever.”

To contact a Farm Bill Biologist in your area, click here: Farm Bill Biologists. For more information on the Farm Bill Biologist program, contact Jim Inglis, Farm Bill Biologist Coordinator, at (419) 569-1096 or via email at jinglis@pheasantsforever.org.

About:
Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are non-profit conservation organizations dedicated to the protection and enhancement of pheasant, quail, and other wildlife populations in North America through habitat improvement, land management, public awareness, and education. PF/QF has more than 125,000 members in 750 local chapters across the continent.

For additional information please visit www.PheasantsForever.org and www.QuailForever.org

Pheasants Forever

Saint Paul, Minn. – -(AmmoLand.com)- With over 30,000 acres enrolled in the program in the past three months, more than 125,000 acres have already been enrolled in federal Conservation Practice 38 this year to date. The wildlife-oriented practice, better known as the State Acres For wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) program, currently has 203,874 acres enrolled nationally.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has established a goal of 500,000 acres for SAFE, which is part of the larger federal Continuous Conservation Reserve Program (CCRP). Announced in 2007, SAFE is a wildlife-specific conservation practice that has allowed states to cater policies specific to their wildlife and habitat. For example, SAFE projects in Midwestern states such as Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota benefit pheasants and other upland birds, while the SAFE project in Washington targets Roosevelt elk.

Demand for SAFE in some sates, including South Dakota (50,004 acres), Minnesota (22,476 acres), and Nebraska (20,947 acres) has been so strong that those states are at or near their initial SAFE acreage allotment. “For SAFE to continue to be the stepping stone for the next generation of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), we need to give serious consideration to reallocating acres to continue to meet the demand that exists in certain states,” said Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever’s vice president of government affairs.

Last year, as part of a contract signing ceremony in South Dakota for the first SAFE contract in the nation, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever requested an additional 500,000 acres nationwide for the program based on strong interest and demand for SAFE in multiple states.

“The immediate success has not waned, as SAFE has eclipsed 200,000 acres nationwide in less than two years of existence. We’re more adamant than ever that an additional 500,000-acre allotment to the SAFE program is necessary going forward,” Nomsen said, “A 1-million-acre SAFE program is the progressive step needed to maintain the strength of CRP and create critical habitat for wildlife.”

Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have been instrumental in both the development and delivery of the SAFE program. The initial SAFE projects were announced at the organization’s National Pheasant Fest 2008, and through its Farm Bill Biologist program, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have worked to educate farmers and landowners about the benefits of conservation programs, including SAFE, and then assist those farmers and landowners after programs have been implemented.

More About SAFE
The SAFE program has added flexibility, specialization and a state specific focus to the already existing CRP practices. This is done by concentrating on acres located on the most environmentally sensitive land and then establishing the highest priority conservation practices on these generally smaller tracts. SAFE has also been highly effective in targeting the restoration of habitat critical for wildlife species that are threatened, endangered, have suffered significant population declines and/or are considered to be socially or economically valuable. These species include, but are not limited to, pheasants, bobwhite quail, American black bears, Roosevelt elk, bald eagles, salmon, song birds and pollinators.

How to Enroll in SAFE
SAFE projects are available through USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) service centers as part of the ongoing continuous sign-up for the Conservation Reserve Program. For additional information and application assistance regarding SAFE, visit your county FSA office or http://www.fsa.usda.gov; or contact the Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever Farm Bill Biologist in your area.

About Pheasants Forever
Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are non-profit conservation organizations dedicated to the protection and enhancement of pheasant, quail, and other wildlife populations in North America through habitat improvement, land management, public awareness, and education. PF/QF has more than 125,000 members in 750 local chapters across the continent.

For additional information please visit www.PheasantsForever.org and www.QuailForever.org

Sportsmen Press USDA to Slow Colorado Roadless Rule-Making

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON – -(AmmoLand.com)- In a letter sent today to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a broad consortium of sportsmen’s groups urged USDA intervention in the finalization of a state-based rule for roadless area management in Colorado to conserve valuable fish and wildlife habitat and uphold hunting and fishing opportunities.

The draft Colorado roadless rule, which will determine the management of 4.4 million acres of roadless backcountry, has been widely criticized due to exceptions and loopholes that could jeopardize some of the state’s most valuable public lands. Organized sportsmen have been meeting with representatives from the state and U.S. Forest Service throughout the development of the Colorado roadless rule and have expressed significant concerns about the ability of the proposed rule to conserve Colorado’s best remaining fish and wildlife habitat.

“By deferring completion of the Colorado rule,” the letter reads, “we can take time to further address and attempt to fix the proposed rule’s many problems. This process should include continued negotiations with sportsmen, conservationists and the state Division of Wildlife to ensure that Colorado roadless areas are afforded the same level of protections as those provided by a national roadless rule.”

“As Colorado hunters and anglers know from boots-on-the-ground experience, roadless areas provide important habitat for our state’s fish and wildlife populations,” said David Petersen, state field director for Trout Unlimited’s Sportsmen’s Conservation Project. “These areas are critical to both the health of watersheds and a range of big-game species. With private-lands sportsman access rapidly diminishing, our public-lands backcountry has become the last bastion of the North American Model of Game Management, offering equitable access to high-quality hunting and fishing for all.”

Overall, roadless area conservation is overwhelmingly supported by Coloradans, with the vast majority of public comments on the state rule-making process requesting the strongest possible conservation measures in the Colorado rule.

“The public has spoken loudly and decisively in favor of backcountry conservation,” said David Lien, co-chair of Colorado Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. “Correspondingly, our federal government must assure the long-term conservation of our valuable national forest backcountry through a Colorado roadless rule that lives up to the expectations of the public and the requests of the state Division of Wildlife.”

More than 58 million acres of roadless areas are encompassed within America’s national forests and grasslands, but a series of conflicting court decisions have left management of these areas unsettled for years. Hunters and anglers supported the recent move by Secretary Vilsack to issue a “timeout” on most development in roadless areas. The secretary’s directive requires high-level review of proposed backcountry development until permanent rules for these areas’ management can be resolved.

“Secretary Vilsack can play a crucial leadership role in the Colorado roadless rule-making process by ensuring that our state’s backcountry is conserved,” said Forrest Orswell, Colorado field representative for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “In this case, the secretary’s involvement is not only the responsible course of action; it is the right thing to do. The sportsmen’s community is willing to help move this important process forward and stands ready to assist in finalizing this far-reaching management document.”

Read the sportsmen’s letter to Secretary Vilsack.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON, DC – A coalition of hunting, fishing and conservation organizations urged the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to maintain mandatory spending levels for the many vital U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation programs as authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership announced today.

“USDA conservation programs represent the single-largest federal investment in conservation on private land,” said Dave Nomsen, vice president of government affairs at Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. “Farmers and ranchers are eager to share the cost of clean water, clean air, a stable climate and fish and wildlife habitat, and funding popular Farm Bill programs will provide these landowners the incentive and opportunity help safeguard these important natural resources.”

American Sportfishing Association, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Ducks Unlimited, Izaak Walton League of America, Land Trust Alliance, National Wildlife Federation, Pheasants Forever, Quail Forever, Quail Unlimited, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Trout Unlimited and The Wildlife Society joined in asking the Appropriations Committees to fully fund vital fish and wildlife habitat conservation programs. The groups expressed their wishes in letters that were sent to committee members on June 3, preceding today’s testimony by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Sec. Vilsack appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee to detail President Obama’s proposed budget cuts to conservation programs.

“We are concerned that the levels of funding proposed in the president’s budget will not meet private landowner demand for addressing air, energy, soil, water, and important fish and wildlife habitat issues across the country,” said Jen Mock Schaeffer agriculture conservation policy analyst at AFWA. “The sportsmen’s and conservation community urges the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to maintain the mandatory conservation funding that was prescribed for these programs in the 2008 Farm Bill.”

President Obama’s 2010 budget proposal cut funding to many key USDA conservation programs. For example, the Wetlands Reserve Program, which is the only USDA program solely dedicated to wetlands conservation and has conserved nearly 2 million acres of wetlands since its inception, was cut by more than $26 million. This would eliminate nearly 139,000 acres of wetlands enrolled in the WRP. Learn more about how the president’s proposed budget affects sportsmen.

“A particularly frustrating aspect of cutting conservation spending is that demand from farmers and ranchers far exceeds authorized funding levels,” said Brad Redlin, agricultural program director for the Izaak Walton League of America. “The USDA regularly records backlogged applications at numbers that are double or more of what available funding can meet.”

“Sufficient funding for these programs is vital to conservation of our natural resources that are located on private lands,” said Geoff Mullins, TRCP policy initiatives manager. “Not only do Farm Bill programs benefit fish and wildlife and their habitat, they also provide quality recreational opportunities for hunters, anglers and all who enjoy our natural resources. Sportsmen look to our leaders in both the House and Senate for prompt and decisive action to restore conservation funding and avoid a severe impact on America’s sporting traditions.”

“Private landowners are constantly looking for ways to conserve fish and wildlife habitat on their lands,” added Dan Wrinn, director of public policy at DU. “These programs give these forward-thinking landowners the tools needed to help maintain the vitality of our nation’s ever-shrinking acres of wetlands, grasslands, forests and other fish and wildlife habitat. Hunters and anglers implore our congressional leaders to appropriate the funds needed for landowners to continue their conservation efforts.”

Read the coalition’s letter to Senate Appropriations Committee members urging the support of mandatory funding for USDA conservation programs.

Learn more about the TRCP’s efforts to ensure that the latest Farm Bill addressed conservation programs of great interest to sportsmen.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON - -(AmmoLand.com)- An assemblage of prominent sportsmen-conservationist groups today pointedly criticized a proposed plan for management of Colorado’s national forest roadless areas and asked U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to intervene in the rule-making process until fundamental problems with the draft plan can be resolved.

Colorado Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Colorado Trout Unlimited, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and Trout Unlimited’s Sportsmen’s Conservation Project expressed significant concerns about the ability of the proposed Colorado roadless rule to sustain important fish and wildlife habitat. The groups stressed that finalization of the Colorado roadless rule should be deferred until key officials are appointed at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service and a review of the proposed rule can be undertaken.

“The proposed Colorado roadless rule does not adequately conserve Colorado’s roadless areas and can be substantially improved and clarified,” said Joel Webster, TRCP associate director of campaigns. “Colorado’s backcountry areas are world-class, and hunters and anglers have a huge stake in assuring their responsible management.”

Organized sportsmen have been meeting with representatives from the state and U.S. Forest Service throughout the development of the Colorado roadless rule, which was initiated in 2007 by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter. Contrary to the governor’s stated intentions, a draft rule released by the U.S. Forest Service in 2008 is considerably weaker than the national roadless rule and includes exceptions allowing energy drilling, coal development, major water projects, transmission corridors and timber cutting in valuable public-lands fish and wildlife habitat.

“Trout Unlimited has been at the table with other sportsmen’s groups negotiating earnestly with both the state and the Forest Service throughout the Colorado roadless rule process,” said David Petersen, TU Colorado field director for sportsmen’s conservation projects. “Consequently, we are deeply disappointed that at this terminal stage the proposed rule continues to propagate undesirable management practices and paradigms. As currently written, the proposed rule is rife with exceptions that could adversely affect public-lands hunting, fishing and watersheds, and it largely ignores the clearly expressed desires of Colorado sportsmen – as well as the Colorado Division of Wildlife and an overwhelming majority of citizen input asking for maximum roadless area protections.”

The sportsmen point to specific examples of overly permissive language in the proposed rule, including the following:

• excessive discretion and allowances for timber cutting and road building in the backcountry, far removed from forest-edge communities
• expanded utility and water conveyance allowances
• roadless coal mining provisions (especially in the Priest Mountain area).

“Exceptions allowing road building and development in roadless areas must be narrowly and clearly defined in order to sustain the economic boost provided by Colorado’s backcountry,” said David Lien, co-chairman of Colorado BHA. “Especially in these troubling financial times, our towns and rural communities rely on the income provided by sportsmen now more than ever.”

Colorado’s 345 roadless areas comprise approximately 4.4 million acres. Roadless areas provide superior habitat to species prized by sportsmen, including elk, mule deer and native Colorado cutthroat trout, and form the core of the more than $1 billion hunter and anglers contribute annually to Colorado’s economy.

“To favorably resolve the Colorado rule, its problems must be addressed so that roadless area characteristics are conserved at a level comparable to the national roadless rule,” said David Nickum, executive director of Colorado TU. “Our groups want to conserve roadless values in the places where Americans hunt and fish – and ensure that our backcountry traditions are upheld for future generations to experience and enjoy.”

Read the sportsmen’s letter to Sec. Vilsack regarding the Colorado roadless rule.