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Transcript
Natural Resources Conservation Service
Chesapeake Bay Listening Session*
July 14, 2008 - Annapolis, Maryland
Updated
08/13/2008
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Meeting Transcript
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*This informal transcript was developed from a digital audio
recording of the listening session and as such is conversational in tone. Some
remarks were unintelligible and are noted herein (“unint”). Other words and
names that were based on phonetic sound are labeled “ph,” and may not be spelled
correctly; any inaccuracies are unintentional.
Dick Coombe, NRCS Regional Assistant Chief, East: Good morning. I see that
it’s just a wonderful crowd. And I just wanted to welcome all of you. We
appreciate everyone attending. USDA and Natural Resource Conservation Service
are impressed with the level of interest in the Bay and appreciate the
assistance in getting conservation on the ground. I’d like to start with a
Pledge of Allegiance. Would you please rise and join me in the Pledge of
Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and
to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all.
There’s always a lot of interest in the Chesapeake Bay, and certainly at the
watershed scale. We can be proud of everything that has been accomplished in the
Bay to date. It has all happened through partnerships. But more needs to happen.
Natural Resources Conservation Service is a locally led organization. We respect
input from people who know the land best and actually apply conservation on the
land. Personally I believe agriculture is a preferred land use as is forestry to
improve the Bay’s health. I happen to be a farmer in the New York City watershed
and have worked about 11 years of my life on just that issue.
We look forward to hearing your ideas about how to best maintain and improve
agriculture’s viability and protecting the Bay. This listening session
demonstrates that we are serious about the Bay and serious about hearing from
stakeholders at all levels representing all groups and organizations. Chief
Lancaster and I recognize that there are so many dignitaries here today that we
can’t begin to name them. Many of them will be speaking. So once again we
appreciate the dignitaries from the Federal, state and local level.
I would like to at this time introduce my boss, Chief Arlen Lancaster who works
tirelessly for getting conservation on the ground. He has a great passion for
conservation. And I appreciate him giving all of us the opportunity to have this
little listening session today. Chief Lancaster.
Arlen Lancaster, Chief, NRCS: Thanks, Dick. And thanks for your leadership at
NRCS and working with Bay issues. You’ve been really just a tremendous asset to
the agency in working to bring people together to take advantage of our assets
and do things for us. I see folks are in the back. There are some chairs in the
front if you want to move forward and take seats. I’m going to be relatively
brief because the purpose of this meeting is to hear from you, to get your
perspective on how we move forward with this initiative and not necessarily for
us to tell you what we’re going to do, because quite frankly we’re looking for
that advice and guidance as we move forward.
None of us are new to working on conservation here. All of us have a passion for
conservation. All of us apply it in different ways and have different areas of
responsibility. And we recognize that overall as we look to implementing
conservation in the Bay that there is a plan in place, there is an approach in
place, and most importantly there is a dedication and a will for farmers,
ranchers, interested parties in this watershed to find solutions, implement
conservation so we can reach all of our goals.
The reason we’ve invested over $8 million per year in the watershed to address
resource concerns, help increase their conservation goals and in doing so to
make progress towards achieving the goals laid out in the plan. And as you’ve
seen in some of the exhibits and displays that we had we have a tremendous
partnership in trying to reach those goals. And if you have a chance to interact
throughout this conference I hope you’ll take a moment to look at what we’ve
done and I believe that will give a roadmap of how much further we can go.
Despite the fact that we have invested our resources, the public’s resources in
addressing watershed concerns, despite the fact that we have taken our Farm Bill
program’s targeted resources to address the concerns of those in the watershed,
Congress said, “You know what - we think you have a pretty good model, but we
can do more.” And so Congress, specifically in Section 2605 of the Farm Bill,
provided additional financial resources to meet the goals of the watershed.
Overall, the Bill provides $188 million in additional program resources in the
Chesapeake Bay. In fiscal year 2009, $23 million is provided. And that dollar
amount increases.
And as we receive your comments one thing that’s important to recognize is that
in some cases Congress was specific in how we can operate the program, in other
places Congress provided discretion to the agency. And what we’re looking for is
to get comments certainly on everything, but recognize only those items that we
have discretion for are those areas that we’ll be able to make changes.
And one of the things Congress did specify is that the funds are utilized
through existing Farm Bill programs. They are available until expended, which
means that $188 million, should Congress provide the entire amount, will be
there each and every year. I will caution one of the things that we learned as
we looked at the 2002 Farm Bill, only about 80 percent of that funding was
actually approved and made its way through the entire Congressional process
after the appropriators take action with regard to the Bill, for the applicable
programs.
And again they’ll be applicable in different ways, shapes and forms, but one of
the things that we’re hoping to do is get some feedback here. What is the right
mixture of programs? What did you identify as the types of practices and the
types of programs that are necessary to reach your goals and to reach the
producer goals in the watershed? We have our cost-share programs, the
Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Wildlife Habitat Incentives
Program.
We have easement programs, such as the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program
and the Grasslands Reserve Program. We have our Stewardship program, our new
Stewardship program, the Conservation Stewardship Program. And we have two land
retirement programs, the Wetlands Reserve Program and Conservation Reserve
Enhancement Program.
Through these programs we will enter into producer contracts for efforts to
control erosion and reduce sediment and nutrient levels in ground and surface
water. We’ll look to restore, protect and enhance habitat that is ecologically
significant. Congress also specified that special consideration and evaluation
of applications in the Susquehanna, Shenandoah, Potomac and Patuxent River
Basins. So as you provide your comments just keep in mind those are things that
we really have no discretion over. These are the programs that will be utilized.
These are some of the priority areas that Congress has dictated.
We will have some discretion over what practices we offer and which program
mixture that we offer. $23 million - as I explained to our folks - is that money
loses its color essentially. It can be used in any of these programs. And the
discretion of the agency is to decide which of those programs will get what
amount. Maybe you say you want another CREP agreement and those dollars should
go towards the assistance on the Federal side matching those CREP agreements
with the states. Maybe the idea is that we need to do more in cover crops and
the dollars should go towards EQIP. Maybe the idea is that we need to preserve
much of our ag and forest land and the dollars should go to these long term
easement protection programs.
But that’s why we’re here. We’re here to get that feedback from you, the people
who are on the ground implementing conservation to address our watershed needs.
We’re very interested in hearing your comments. We’re very aware of the
Chesapeake Bay Plan and we believe that that will be a great guiding document
for all of us as we look to prioritize our resources within the Bay.
And I do want to echo again what Dick said. We have so many dignitaries here
from so many different levels of government that I think we would take up most
of the morning if I were to go through and mention people by name. But I will
mention just briefly that the folks at the podium who are taking notes and we
have other staff who are taking notes to record all these comments.
Dick Coombe, the Regional Assistant Chief for the Eastern Region who’s been our
point person; Mark Rey, the [USDA] Under Secretary for Natural Resources and
Environment is the tip of the spear of the Department. And Dick is the tip of
the tip of the spear as we engage in these issues. Dana York, the Associate
Chief - She is the highest ranking career employee at NRCS. She’s very committed
to this effort and she’ll make sure that our efforts transcend administrations.
Boyd Rutherford, the Assistant Secretary for Administration in the Department of
Agriculture. And I appreciate Boyd’s presence here because it is an indication
of how important USDA overall believes these programs can be. And Tom
Christensen, the Deputy Chief for Programs who manages and has oversight over
all of our Farm Bill programs.
Recognizing again all the high level of participation that we have here, the
number of people that I’m sure are going to want to comment, but also those that
could not attend I want to make very clear that the record for receiving
comments will continue to be open. We will continue to seek input. I encourage
you to go back and have folks submit written comments on this: their
expectations, ideas and comments on how to make this program successful within
the boundaries that Congress gave us.
We’ll continue to leave the record open for this hearing if folks want to
associate it with this listening session, but again I encourage you to go out
and as you interact with folks who did not have a chance to attend you encourage
them to get their written comments in. Every comment is equally valid and
equally important, whether it be written or given orally here. So with that Dick
I think we’re ready for the listening part, so I’m going to sit down, but I
thank you again for your participation here today. I know that the way that we
will be successful is by working collaboratively, by working together to find
common solutions that implement conservation through our farmers and ranchers
who are dedicated to improving their natural resources. So thank you again.
(APPLAUSE)
Dick Coombe: Thank you so much, Chief, Boyd, Dana and Tom for taking time out of
your busy schedules to be here today and listen. This is a partnership effort
and I want to take a moment to ask one of our most important colleagues and
partners to come to the podium for a special welcoming message and that’s the
EPA Regional Administrator, Don Walsh from Region Three. I moseyed up to Philly
one day and met in his office and we chatted about the Chesapeake and we’ve come
a long way. It’s all about relationships and cooperative conservation. Don,
welcome, and I’ll ask you to come up.
Don Walsh, EPA: Thank you, and I’d like to thank the USDA and the Natural
Resources Conservation Service for holding this listening session. I think it’s
a great effort to engage the Chesapeake Bay partners in a regional approach in
cooperative conservation. Both the Bay and the heritage of agriculture are among
the most important values to the people of the Mid Atlantic region. And I knew I
was going to say that, but I didn’t realize how important they would be that the
room would be this full and we would have people standing in the back.
I recall calling a press conference to help announce a new national standard for
emissions controls that we thought would save 6,000 lives a year and I had
nobody show up at the press conference. So around these parts you just say the
word “bay” and you get a crowd; you say the word “agriculture,” you get a crowd;
you say them both together you get standing room only. So this is a great
turnout. The Chesapeake Bay provisions of the Farm Bill will help us go a long
way to restoring the Bay while also helping to assure a profitable and healthy
agricultural environment.
Dick Coombe at NRCS has been a key part of an effort in the past few years to
improve the cooperation and the spirit of partnership among the federal agencies
with responsibilities touching on the Bay, but also to improve the partnership
between the Federal family and the rest of the Chesapeake Bay community. And I’m
glad to see so many representatives from the states in the Mid Atlantic region
who are here today. Certainly at EPA we get nothing done in any of our programs
without our partners in the states. So it’s great to see them here as well.
But I think this meeting and your turnout here is evidence of that commitment of
NRCS to making that much more effective partnership help us meet our common
goals in the Chesapeake Bay. So I just want to thank USDA and I want to say
thank you to you, those of you who took the time to prepare comments for this
and to show up today to give those comments. And I won’t be able to stay for the
entire session, but there are folks here from EPA who will be staying during the
course of the day and you may have an opportunity to chat with them as well. So
we look forward to working with you as we work together to protect the Bay and
preserve agriculture. Thank you. (APPLAUSE)
Dick Coombe: Before we start just a few more comments. Thank you, Don, for those
comments; we appreciate your friendship as well as your partnership. I also want
to point out a few other key partners. First of all, Jeff Lape, who we forged a
really strong working partnership with, he’s the Director of the Chesapeake Bay
Program for the USEPA. And we’ve had some really great working relationships on
communication and our personal involvement. Jeff, would you please stand? Thank
you. (APPLAUSE)
I also would like to recognize Ann Swanson. Ann is the Executive Director of the
Chesapeake Bay Commission and she has worked tirelessly on Bay issues for many
years along with Merrill, Rob and many other directors. She is such a strong
advocate for the Bay, and would you please stand? (APPLAUSE)
And lastly, he can’t be here, but Will Baker, President of the Chesapeake Bay
Foundation, is a great advocate for the Bay and wanted to use all tools. And I’m
very pleased at the fact that he’s looking at market based initiatives too. And
so Will is not here, I know there are reps from his organization. (APPLAUSE)
Also for a moment I would like to introduce a few other NRCS folks spearheading
the effort for us at the state level. Craig Derickson, the State Conservationist
for Pennsylvania. Hold your applause for all of them. Next of all, Jon Hall, the
State Conservationist here at Maryland. Jack Bricker, the State Conservationist
from Virginia. For Russ Morgan, Les Stillson, the [Assistant] State
Conservationist over in Delaware. Leon Brooks is here for the state of New York,
[representing] Ron Alverado [State Conservationist] in New York.
And Herbert Andrick, [Assistant State Conservationist for Field Operations]is
here for Kevin Wickey, the State Conservationist from West Virginia. And lastly,
Rob McAfee, the watershed specialist for the Bay is here also. I would like to
have them get a round of applause. They’re here … (APPLAUSE)
Chief Lancaster: I note that they all have note pads to take notes. We’re going
to pay particular attention to all of your comments in all of those states.
Dick Coombe: Very good. Thank you, Chief. I also wanted to recognize Dan Lawson,
if he would please stand. Dan’s our Bay program expert at national headquarters.
And if anyone who has written comments, please submit those to Dan. His contact
information is on the screen. And Dan also would like to meet with you. Tom,
thank you for having Dan come here today.
We’re now going to begin the listening session. We’re anxious to get your input.
Doug McKalip is going to help us, he’s our Director of Legislative Affairs, cue
the order of the comments by announcing the current speaker as well as who will
be next. If your name is called, please move toward the microphone so that you
can begin directly after the preceding speaker finishes. We want to minimize
transition time so that we can listen as carefully as we can to the substance.
Each speaker will be given - will have five minutes - to hit their key points.
We’d also be happy to take any full comments in writing for the record. Between
you and I, looking at the crowd, try to keep it to three minutes and you know,
submit the rest if you need to go over a little bit. So Doug will take care of
that. We’ll all be listening. If you have questions, chances are we have the
same ones, which is why we’re holding this session.
And our panelists will not be in a position to enter into a question/answer
dialogue. They will be listening closely and working to gain an understanding of
your points of view. We have to do a lot. Folks can feel free to circulate in
these facilities, get a snack; however, we intend to keep the session going
because everyone’s input is important. With that done, let’s get started.
Doug McKalip: Thank you Dick. And we’re really appreciative of the farmers
letting us take their time this morning to give us their views. We’re very
pleased with the number of Cabinet Secretaries and Executive Branch folks we
have here from each of the states. We’re going to start off with the Secretary
of Agriculture from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Dennis Wolff.
Male Speaker (MS): Thank you. Good morning everyone. My name is Dennis Wolff and
I have the privilege of serving as Secretary of Agriculture for the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania. I have presented written testimony however I’m not going to
read that; I’m just going to make a few comments. First I’d like to thank
Secretary Schafer, USDA and NRCS calling this session and allowing me to present
our views on behalf of the Governor for how important this program is for
Pennsylvania.
Our journey started back in fall, 2005 when we held listening sessions around
Pennsylvania. There was one recurring theme expressed by our farmers time and
time again: that was the need for additional dollars for new practices to allow
our farmers in Pennsylvania to maintain their legacy in environmental
stewardship. Their request included reform in the Conservation Title and they
suggested that we have $100 million in a special program for nutrient management
programs in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
They suggested that there should be an increase in share for states that are
already investing in the Bay program. They asked for a regional stewardship
program and they also asked for enhanced technical assistance, particularly at
the farmer level. So we want to thank the Congress of the 2008 Farm Bill; we
think it addresses many of these issues. I would like to review a list of
Pennsylvania’s policies as well as achievements in the Bay restoration. EPA in
its most recent calculation shows that Pennsylvania farmers can claim about
one-half of the nitrogen reduction in the Bay as it relates to agriculture.
We think this has been accomplished by a number of things. First, Pennsylvania
was the first state in the Chesapeake Bay to make nutrient management plans
mandatory. Secondly, our nutrient management plans include phosphorous as well
as nitrogen. Also Pennsylvania has preserved about 20 percent of its land in the
Bay. And also Pennsylvania was the first state to have an approved EPA CAFO
program in the Chesapeake Bay. So Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay compliance
program is aggressive and this new funding will certainly be helpful to us.
We think that there are four priority objectives that need to be focused on.
First being our riparian buffers and particularly riparian buffers in areas that
have livestock or pasture areas. Secondly, cover crops are critical and
essential to improving the quality of the Bay and these dollars could help with
that. No till conservation or as we say continuous no till or as our No Till
Alliance in Pennsylvania uses as their byline [unint] very important in
improving water quality in the Bay.
And also additional technical assistance is needed by the states to have some
discretion there in terms of whether we have service providers or there may be
additional staff at the county level. Other suggestions would include channeling
dollars through the EQIP program, keeping it as a separate line item, supporting
on the ground practices for working farms, supplement EQIP but do not displace
current funding. The goals should also look at a minimum baseline for all farms
and focus on farms that have not traditionally used these conservation programs.
Also targeting areas that are high in nitrogen and phosphorus load will be
essential, and also recommending that a last quarter review be completed so that
uncommitted funds can be, at the discretion of the state conservationist,
reallocated to different areas that can use them.
So in closing I’d just like to thank NRCS for holding this session today and
allowing us to offer Pennsylvania’s concerns and Pennsylvania’s views on this.
I’d like to congratulate everyone who made this a reality. And certainly from
Pennsylvania we’re very proud of Senator Casey and Senator Becker for their
efforts as well as Congressman Holden. And we look forward to the positive
impact from these new dollars going forward. Thank you.
Doug McKalip: Thank you. (APPLAUSE)
Doug McKalip: We have several members of the cabinet here from the state of
Maryland. We’re going to start off with the Maryland Secretary of Agriculture,
Roger Richardson, to be followed by the Deputy Secretary for the Department of
Natural Resources, Eric Schwaab. Secretary Richardson.
MS: Thank you. I’m Roger Richardson, Secretary of Ag for Maryland. The Governor
appointed me back in February a year ago. And it’s certainly a pleasure to do
the job. It’s a pleasure to have visitors from sister states that are here with
us today - you mentioned a few - I won’t go through that list. But I’m glad that
they’re here and you all too. Governor O’Malley and Maryland agriculture has
made a very strong commitment to addressing issues related to the Chesapeake
Bay, especially agriculture benefits to that and the farm environment also.
We believe a healthy Bay will result from an approach that combines technical
assistance, financial assistance and regulatory oversight. We have a very large
cover crop program in Maryland. I think it was almost 300,000 acres this year,
which was a very effective way of helping control ag runoff from agriculture.
The conservation delivery system in Maryland is alive and strong and built upon
the core technical role by the NRCS. Without NRCS we would all be amiss; the
conservation district we work with very strongly has been a great big help to us
and also hopefully we’re a help to them.
We believe a key element to putting more BMPs on the grants for the help of the
Bay is to have adequate capacity to deliver those programs. Besides money, NRCS
and our districts have to have people to help get it on the land. The farmers
respect the conservation districts and work very closely with them. There are
updates of this new funding to partner and state agencies to leverage the money
to get more bang for our buck. So we certainly are working toward that issue
also.
Cooperative agreements with partner agencies and direct program grant support
can enhance agriculture stewardship. Our farmers need practical, effective and
measurable conservation technology to maintain a sustainable ag administration
in Maryland. Ag is the largest industry in the state of Maryland. It provides
more dollars to the state than any business in the state. We stand ready to
assist NRCS in developing and installing the right BMPs wherever they’re needed.
And with that it’s my proud pleasure to introduce Eric Schwaab, Maryland
Department of Natural Resources. Eric.
MS: Thank you Mr. Secretary, thank you members of the panel, Chief Lancaster. We
appreciate you being here for us today. We more appreciate you having been here
for us in the Bay region for a long time. We very much appreciate the work of
Congress in creating this opportunity for us and I just want to make a few
comments about the opportunities associated with best utilizing this money to
make measurable differences for the Chesapeake Bay region.
Here in Maryland we have a long history of folks with limited resources to try
to do a very tough job. We have ramped up that effort through the last 18 months
through a process here that we call Bay State. This is the work of Governor
O’Malley and his Bay cabinet to bring Secretary Richardson, the Department of Ag
Resources and others that you will hear from here shortly to organize and deploy
resources in ways that convey the biggest difference on the ground.
And what we would suggest to you very simply is that both here in Maryland and
with our other partners around the Bay region that there is an opportunity to
utilize some of the principles that were embodied in the Bay State process in a
way that can give us collectively the greatest opportunity to see measurable
results as a result of not only this focused money, but many of the other
investments that we all make in the Bay region.
And let me just very quickly touch on a couple of those principles. The first
one as you already heard Secretary Richardson refer to is targeted use of
resources. Targeted both in a geographic sense and a sense of the practices that
can be employed most efficiently and economically. Inherent in that targeting
process, and I think a key principle before you here today in this deliberation,
is the idea of targeting to a scale where we can have the prospect of making a
measurable difference.
So one of the things that we have done in the Bay cabinet through the Bay State
process is, and utilized particularly a new Chesapeake Bay trust fund to
identify very specific watersheds where we are first putting the majority of our
money in a way that we hope will allow us to achieve measurable results in water
quality and for living resources.
The third principle speaks specifically to the idea of leveraging. We would very
much like to build on our past relationships with you and with our other Bay
conservation partners to identify ways to bring dollars together so that we can
leverage, maximize engagement and leverage the resources that we collectively
bring together in a way that can yield measurable results.
Finally, this principle of measurement. [Unint] is built on the idea of
measurement - we think that again if we focus resources at the right scale,
leverage our partnerships - we can yield measurable results, which is something
that has been frankly a frustration here in the Bay region for many of our
stakeholders for a long period of time. And if we can apply these principles
that we have been applying here in Maryland through the Bay State process more
collectively with these new resources we think that that will be something that
would be of great benefit to the citizens of the region. Thank you.
MS: I’m Bob Summers. Thank you, [Deputy] Secretary of the Department of the
Environment.
MS: I just want to emphasize a couple of points, additional to what my
colleagues on the Bay cabinet had to say. First of all, we certainly need to
implement our existing practices the best way we can, but we really need to also
focus on new tools to enhance environmental management. The first item in the
legislation deals with improving water quality. We need to control the nutrient
and sediment that are causing those water quality standards violations in the
Bay. Market based approaches in particular are very important to this effort,
including bundling of different practices that deal with both water quality and
air quality issues.
In the area of animal waste management in particular in Maryland we are focusing
recently on animal waste management issues particularly in the poultry sector
and dealing with proper short term storage of poultry litter and other ways to
try to improve our utilization is a very important resource, absolutely
critical. In order to do this we’re going to have to provide the technical
training and technical assistance to the farmers.
That’s going to require as Secretary Richardson mentioned partnering with both
the federal, state and private sector in terms of bringing that technical
capability to the farmers so they can develop and implement the most effective,
comprehensive nutrient management plans that will apply to BMPs at each step in
the process and truly be the best management practices.
And as Eric mentioned at the end of his [unint], including strategic monitoring
to document both the cost and the effectiveness of these practices is absolutely
critical. Back to one of my first points about dealing with market based
approaches in implementing this: If we don’t have good information on both the
cost and effectiveness these market based approaches such as nutrient trading
are really not going to work.
And to talk a little bit more in the effectiveness area I’d like to introduce
Dr. Frank Cole from our University of Maryland who’s going to hit clean up for
this group.
MS: I’m Frank Cole from the University of Maryland College of Agriculture and
Natural Resources. I’m representing our Dean, Cheng-i Wei who couldn’t be here
today. The University of Maryland College of Ag and Natural Resources along with
the University Center for Environmental Science are active partners with our
state agencies and our Federal partners to help advance and accelerate our
restoration of Chesapeake Bay [unint] best technologies and farm management
practices.
It is critical that we work together to assure accountability in our effort to
renew the Chesapeake Bay - understanding the effectiveness and efficiency of
agricultural practices is vitally important. We must be able to document our
successes. On the other hand, we also must be able to understand what we did to
succeed. We must design monitoring and evaluation criteria so we can reliably
quantify the effectiveness and practices that we put on the land.
As a result we will be able to position, be in a position to provide reliable
data to support, adapt a management strategy that allows us to adjust program
priorities based on all the data. It is critical that we continue to promote the
development and adoption of new agricultural and nutrient management
technologies to provide a bridge between technology development and conservation
practice implementation on the farm. We must help the farmer adapt and we must
help the farmers adopt.
Finally, we must be nimble in our approach. We must generate measurable
outcomes. We must use data we generate to make real time, force corrections
along the way as we need to. Thank you. (APPLAUSE)
Doug McKalip: As we go to our friends, from the East, from Delaware and I’d like
to ask Andy Burger, President of the Delaware Association of Conservation
Districts to come forward. Andy is also the Chair of the New Castle Conservation
Districts and he is a farmer as well. Mr. Burger.
MS: [Unintelligible], members of the panel, good morning. My name is Andy Burger
and I’m here this morning on behalf of the Delaware Association of Conservation
Districts. I know there are many speakers waiting their chance at the
microphones so I will be very brief. First, 40 percent of Delaware drains into
the Chesapeake Bay. So what happens in our state effects the Chesapeake Bay and
the tributaries of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
I’m told that Delaware constitutes one percent of the Bay’s 64,000 square mile
watershed and contributes to two percent of its nutrient surface. As a head
water state, Delaware’s held to the same stringent water quality targets and
natural resources protection goals as Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Delaware’s conservation partnerships: our three conservation districts, USDA,
NRCS, and Delaware Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, the
Department of Agriculture, Delaware’s Nutrient Management Commission and [unint]
Division of Natural Resources stand ready to ensure that the new Farm Bill
Chesapeake Bay program fund will be delivered to Delaware’s agricultural
producers to address the Bay’s new priority and nutrient management challenges.
We have a track record of working together with animal producers and row crop
farmers to get the job done without a lot of fuss and fanfare. Delaware State
Technical Committee has consistently focused on Farm Bill conservation programs
such as EQIP, CRP, CREP, and the Farmland Preservation program and programs in
the Delaware watershed that drain into the Chesapeake Bay.
Delaware’s three conversation districts have targeted our state funded
fellowship program to assist producers in planting thousands of acres of cover
crop in all three counties. The nutrient and sediment challenges of the
Chesapeake Bay remain a significant priority for Delaware. Governor Ruth Ann
Minner endorsed a 2007 Chesapeake Bay Commission report that detailed the
conservation opportunities that a Chesapeake Bay Farm Bill program could
address.
Commission’s Executive Director Ann Swanson deserves the credit for her great
work in reaching out to farmers, officials and interest groups throughout the
entire Bay watershed as she prepared this report. In conclusion the Delaware
Association of Conservation Districts and our state and federal partners stand
ready to do our part to assist in reducing excess nutrients and sediments from
entering the Chesapeake Bay and the Bay tributaries.
We believe that the new Farm Bill funding should be distributed fairly and
equitably throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including Delaware, because
Delaware producers are going to be expected to meet the same nutrient reduction
goals as the producers in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Thank you for
allowing me this opportunity. Thank you very much.
Doug McKalip: Next we’re going to hear from, call on our friends from the
Commonwealth of Virginia and ask Mr. Ricky Rash to come forward. Ricky is the
President of the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
I know Ricky has to be back to a doctor’s appointment in Virginia later today.
Hopefully the traffic has improved and we may need to let you go first.
Following Ricky will be from the West Virginia Poultry Association. We’ll have
Dale Walker come to the microphone next. Ricky?
MS: Thanks. Good morning. My alarm went off at the regular time this morning,
five minutes before four, and so I ended up going to milk a herd of cows this
morning, I got dressed to come up here today. And I travel five miles before I
got back into the Chesapeake Bay watershed. I live in the southern rivers, it’s
a non Bay watershed area of Virginia, but as a president and a farmer of
conservation I feel it’s important that I come today and represent Virginia, at
least partially for the Chesapeake Bay region.
Virginia has 47 soil conservation districts and I can say that we’re pleased
with the progress of the Farm Bill regarding the Chesapeake Bay. We too are
under the EPA mandate and we understand that the time constraints that we are
all under to clean up the health of the Chesapeake Bay. However I’m also pleased
to say that Virginia’s legislature and its gubernatorial administration has
taken great strides to allocate approximately $20 million for ag, BMP cost share
programs here in the Commonwealth in the current fiscal year that we’re in.
Unfortunately the estimates to clean up Virginia’s water in the Chesapeake Bay
and the whole state of Virginia are well in excess of $1 billion. So any help
that Virginia can get is of great importance. Only 60 percent of Virginia drains
into the Chesapeake Bay. But those districts represent all or a portion of the
Chesapeake Bay and stand ready to assist NRCS field staff in a mission of non
point source reduction.
The districts are the grassroots agencies of the Commonwealth of Virginia are
operating under the guidelines and engineering specifications of NRCS. And I am
very proud to say that many of our clientele are farmers and land owners could
not tell the difference between an NRCS employee and a district employee when
the farm business was made. I hope that you agree that this is a win/win
situation for water quality as the ownership of water quality belongs to all of
our citizens.
One of the biggest challenges to putting the ag BMPs on the ground of any kind
is selling the program. And it takes staff, it takes time, it takes farm
business. In Virginia, the Virginia Department of Agriculture says there’s about
44,000 farmers in the state of Virginia. So if you extrapolate the numbers a
little bit and say that 60 percent of those reside in the Chesapeake Bay
watershed, we’re looking at 24- to 26,000 farmers.
And within Virginia the Secretary of Natural Resources with the assistance of
the Department of Conservation and Recreation is the lead non point source
agency, says that we need to hit at least 90 percent of the agricultural acres
in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to lead to reductions assigned to Virginia. So
if you again extrapolate the numbers we’re looking at thousands of farm
businesses, pushing 20,000 different businesses. So with the staff that the
districts bring and the staff that NRCS brings we must have the technical
assistance to train the district staff and we must have the bodies for the
engineering assistance that goes with those BMPs once they’re allocated.
We also have to understand that when we’re selling that we’re going on a land
owner’s farm and telling him that while we think you have a pretty good farm we
want to help you make it better. And with the average age of farmers in Virginia
at 56 years old, you’re dealing with a lot of clientele that are not too
friendly to being told that they’re not doing quite as good a job as they should
be. So gaining technical assistance is very important.
The other issue that I think Virginia should be concerned about is the
allocation program. We want it out, we want it fair. We would like to see that
the agriculture non point source acres in Virginia are given a priority and once
that farmer comes to Virginia we need to be able to have the flexibility within
the programs to leverage those Federal dollars with the state dollars that we
have allocated. And we have five priority practices that Virginia has targeted
and those are cover crops, nutrient management, continuous no till, livestock
exclusion and riparian buffers.
These do not represent all of the suite of practices that we have in Virginia,
but they are the most policy effected that we have. And the equity of
distribution among the Bay states is essential to the health of the Chesapeake
Bay. And a healthy Bay is a serious economic generator for the entire Bay
region. I believe as a representative of districts that Virginia is the best
resource to allocate the program dollars once they get to Virginia.
However that formula works out within the Bay region, Virginia can have its own
listening session with Jack Bricker and his management team and all of the
partners, districts. All of the conservation partners of the agriculture and
conservation community in Virginia can help Jack Bricker and his staff allocate
those program dollars. Whether they go for cost share or we have the flexibility
to shift them to conservation easements.
In conclusion I just want to reiterate the need for technical assistance because
we have to sell and it takes bodies to sell. Not every farm visit will result in
a producer signing up. We need equity in the allocation of funding and we need
the flexibility to leverage dollars in Virginia as best we see fit. With that,
thank you.
Doug McKalip: Dale Walker with the West Virginia Poultry Association and next
we’ll have Lynne Hoot from the Maryland Association of Soil Conservation
Districts.
MS: As he said I’m Dale Walker, President of the West Virginia Poultry
Association. And the West Virginia Poultry Association represents approximately
350 poultry farms in West Virginia, which all those poultry farms are in the
five Kenwar [ph] counties of the Bay. Four of these five counties are the top ag
counties in the state of West Virginia. Farmer participation has been very
active for many years. In the mid 90s the NRCS program, PL534 was a very
successful program. West Virginia currently targets their [unint] funding to the
Opeca [ph] Sleepy Creek where there’s no poultry and in the south branch Lost
River and Mill Creek which is poultry county, poultry watersheds.
West Virginia cost share for 2007 was $12 million for all 55 counties in the
state. Estimated cost for agriculture to meet 2010 goals is over $200 million
for non-Bay draining counties. Those goals include transporting of 12 million
pounds of poultry litter out of the watershed per year, developing and
maintaining 520,000 acres of conservation farm programs, install stream water
and vent with fencing within 290,000 acres, install 10,000 acres of forest
buffers, implement and maintain 160,000 acres of new stream management plans.
But funding is needed for this. The litter transport program was a very
successful program which all funding has been cut for that. Also another option
would be a system to pelletize litter could possibly be used for alternative
fuel to heat the poultry houses. Current funding has been completely eliminated
for all this. We need additional personnel to go along with this funding to
carry through with the goals.
With fuel costs and everything, we need more than 50/50 cost sharing for these
programs. The farmers are stretched to the limit with the high fuel costs and
grain. West Virginia Poultry Association recommends a program of possibly 80/20.
This includes your storage, off stream water and fencing, things of this type.
Thank you for the opportunity to voice opinions.
Doug McKalip: Thank you.
Doug McKalip: The next speaker will be Lynne Hoot and then Ann Swanson from the
Chesapeake Bay Commission.
FS: [Unintelligible] welcome to Annapolis and to Maryland. Actually my comments
are going to be broader than just the Maryland Association of Soil Conservation
Districts; I will also be focusing on NRCS [unint]. But I happen to be in a
position where I work for many agricultural organizations here in Maryland
including the Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts.
I also work with the Mid Atlantic Certified Crop Advisor program where we have
certified crop advisors that provide technical assistance to our farmers. And I
also work with some agricultural production groups, the Maryland Grain Producers
and Maryland Pork Producers. And in fact the hat that I wear covers all of those
issues and we are on the same page with the issues that I want to present to
you.
But first of all I want to make some comments about NASCD [ph]. And I just want
to say that this is not intended in a negative context; we have a wonderful
partnership here. But I do want to say that in the last administrations here in
Annapolis we have spent hours trying to work out how we could produce NCRS
programs to the farm with less employees from NRCS.
We have staffing cutbacks and it really has significantly impacted our delivery
system. And what we’re really short of in Maryland is a technical assistance
base working out soil conservation. Our state has made a tremendous commitment
and our districts are stepping up more and more to the plate and now look at
opportunities through the grant process to include staffing. But we really do
lack technical assistance to deliver the programs.
And we are a well respected delivery system to the farmers and the farmer has
seen a development at the last convention. We have to go to the farmers now. We
have to do more and [unint], those people always walk into our doors. We’d like
to see more funding through cooperative agreements go directly to the soil
conservation district and we’d like to see emphasis on the cost share but also
on staffing. Through the certified crop advisors we’d like to make sure that
they have the opportunity. These are the friends of Maryland farmers who they’d
like to work with, the technical assistance for nutrient management, integrating
pest management [unint]. Those are the worker delivery systems. And we’d like to
encourage funding for those things.
And again for the grain producers and the pork producers we like working with
our traditional suppliers and our traditional partner support system. And we’re
very insistent that resources come to NRCS and work through the EQIP programs as
suggested in the Farm Bill program. We like the traditional programs. We want to
be effective. Traditionally we need to know what’s working and what’s not
working.
I understand there’s some studies being done on BMPs and we want to maximize the
use of the most efficient practices. From an innovation standpoint there is a
lot of innovation we can use. And this isn’t brand new, but we really do need to
look at placement of nutrients on the farm fields. We want to help the farmers
work with GPS and some equipment that not all of them have. No till records and
subsistence to do no till and still apply [unint] manure and particularly on the
shore where we’re dealing with poultry litter and improving poultry litter
application.
Some of the research is coming out of the wire [unint] research and education
suggests that no till and poultry litter applications are not the two best
things to do together. We want to maintain no till, but we want to make sure
that our applications are doing well. So I think we want to be innovative and at
the same time strengthen our traditional programs, particularly more technical
systems. And one of the things that I have to stress with my MASCD hat is the
fact that if you look at our industry, if you drove here today and many of you
in Washington you know what it looks like, this is a very urban area and a lot
of our districts also work with a lot of urban work.
We know the districts, we know that NRCS isn’t going to take care of those, but
we do want them there first, for technical advice when we need it for those
urban programs. We’re involved with sediment and erosion control and these are
things that also impact the Chesapeake Bay. So we rely on NRCS to wear a bigger
hat and we look forward to your continued working with us and thank you for the
opportunity that we’ve had today. We’ve come a long way, but we still have a big
job to do. Thank you.
FS: Thank you very much. My name is Ann Swanson. I’m the Executive Director of
the Chesapeake Bay Commission, which is a tri-state legislative commission
working for the general assembly sitting with the Congress. First and absolutely
foremost I’d like to thank you for calling this session. I think it really shows
nationwide the kind of commitment that you have to making this matter, and Chief
Lancaster, Dick Coombe and others at the podium and beyond, I understand the
kind of efforts you’ve made to make this happen and ultimately to make this
program work. And we will stand by you strongly.
With me are two other members of our staff, Merrill Rob [ph] our Pennsylvania
director and Matt Mullen [ph] our Maryland director. You can rely on all of us
on the staffing level. I also have to recognize George Wolfe, one of our long
time members of the Commission and an agricultural expert, who for six year’s
heavy lifting to work this program through. George stood by it every minute of
the way. And I think you can also rely on him and his expertise as a farmer and
agricultural specialist.
In my short time before you I basically want to make eight points. We will be
submitting written testimony, but I think it’s very important to tell the
highlights. Let me also say we are focusing specifically on your Chesapeake Bay
program here. Obviously you have many, many more programs to implement and we
will be active in helping you to make the right decisions for the Bay watershed
with that regard as well.
But specifically for this program let me make a point, the first has to do with
“additionality,” and that is that this $188 million is separate and distinct and
should be viewed that way. The Congressional Budget Office has scored the
Chesapeake Bay watershed program as a separate program with additional funding
and NRCS should act accordingly. You yourself acknowledged only 80 percent of
the prior Farm Bill dollars came; if you need us we are here to make sure that
you can deliver.
The second has to do with rulemaking. You have 264 rulemaking mandates right
now; 168 of them in the Farm Bill. Our compassion is with you. And in this
notion what we suggest is that you go for a notice of funding availability or
NOFA for the additional Chesapeake Bay funding to allow measured decision making
regardless or regarding this important program.
The third has to do with highly efficient cost effective practices. I would be
redundant from the other speakers if I stayed on this at length, but let it
suffice to say that this program is about doing things differently. It’s about
choosing highly efficient, cost effective practices, but also that can be
implemented and take effect quickly.
There are other programs like EQIP that fund some of the very long term
programs, whether it’s manure storage or others. And we encourage you to look
here for what you can get and the biggest bang for your buck in the fastest
amount of time - reach for the proven practices that we know that work.
The fourth has to do with sub watershed scale. You’ve got to do it at a scale we
can manage. We strongly encourage you to reach for the eight digit hydraulic
unit codes. That HUC will allow us, and that’s the hierarchical numeric code,
that will allow us to focus. Fortunately USGS has developed those maps using the
Sparrow model, and so we have that resource available to make those strategic
decisions.
The fifth has to do with innovation. Use these dollars to innovate, but innovate
with proven practices. This is not about implementing unknown practices. This is
not about research, this is not about development; this is about sweetening the
pot to make sure that we’re doing the right thing.
The sixth has to do with technical assistance. You cannot do this program
without technical assistance. We strongly encourage you to reach for the private
firms, the NGOs, the states, the conservation districts, in no apparent order.
They are equipped - work with them for the technical assistance.
The seventh has to do with allocation of funds. Absolutely manage this program
as a Bay wide fund. Do not fall into the trap of just giving out the dollars in
each situation. That’s what the other programs EQIP and WHIP and CSP do. In this
situation we need to strategically focus that decision making into the [unint]
watersheds where it will matter the most.
And the eighth point, which I’d like to make has to do with monitoring and
evaluation. It is absolutely critical that we document monitoring and
evaluation. It’s our understanding, at least for right now, that most of these
dollars will be focused on implementation; therefore we ask you, you know your
programs best, reach for the CCPIs, reach for the AWEP program, reach for the
other programs that can fund research monitoring assessment and couple it with
this program so we can really document for the nation what we were able to do.
You’ve been asked to spend nationwide taxpayer dollars on the Chesapeake. A lot
is at stake to prove that we can do it. And we stand at the Chesapeake Bay
Commission ready to help you at any levels that you need help. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Doug McKalip: I’d like to ask Lee McDaniel to come forward now with the Maryland
Association of State Conservation Districts. He’s the President of MASCD. And
then it will be Jennifer Harry with the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.
MS: Good morning Chief Lancaster and panel. I’m Lee McDaniel. I’m President of
the Maryland Association of State Conservation Districts. I’m also the
legislative representative at NACD, Northeast. So I’m not speaking on their
behalf but I do cover those other states as well. I’d like to start off simply
by saying that our partnership works. We’ve had 50, 60 years of partnership
where we’ve gained the credibility and confidence of our farmers and landowners.
And that’s something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s something that we
should be able to build on.
I think you also need to know that districts are distinct. Each one has
different priorities and different specialties which they are equipped to deal
with. The reason I bring that up is we need to have locally led implementation
in this program. Certainly the best management practice that’s most effective on
the Eastern Shore might not be the same best management practice that’s most
effective in Piedmont. And the same can be said for the Mathis [ph] in Western
Maryland.
We have locally led work groups. I think we can continue to expand on that with
this program. I want to get down into the weeds a little bit of how this program
is going to be managed, because the first thing I saw when the Farm Bill was
passed was I called NACD and said well, what was the intent of the ag committee
in Congress of administering this program? And the report back from the members
of the committee was we don’t want to create a whole new management program, we
want to work within what already exists and possibly enhance it. So I think we
need to keep that in mind as well.
What are the elements of managing this program? Clearly we need the technical
people out there to administer it. And Maryland of course we’ve been dealing
with how do you apply that technical assistance without creating more brick and
mortar and without creating more permanent employees. I think we can address
that simply the same way we have with our 319 positions that we’ve had in our
districts. We can hire individuals or businesses on a contractual basis and have
them report back to the districts.
By doing this you also can have the systematic process of recording. The
districts also already have to record their results through the Maryland Bay
State, and then a different reporting through NRCS. We don’t need a third type
of recording. They need to keep that as simple as possible. The other thing
that’s been an issue for us recently is of course has been NRCS security. If we
start outsourcing things we’re going to need to make sure that you maintain that
security as it has been. And along the same lines we have to recognize the fact
that the cooperators are volunteers who work with us and their privacy also
needs to be protected.
Another issue is the oversight of work if it’s done by third parties. What we
have learned in the past when we’ve had technical service providers outside of
our regular employees that the projects and the technical stuff still has to go
before NRCS engineer people to be approved or to be stamped. And that needs to
be considered as well, because it will be a cost to districts and to NRCS even
if things are outsourced in terms of [unint] and also for the oversight. So
there will be additional costs for the districts even if they don’t have
additional employees when the work’s done on a third party basis.
I think that the other issue that we need to think about and it’s one that the
districts are always dealing with: do we prioritize projects or do we deal with
customers on a first come, first served basis? And I’m not going to be here to
argue that because my time is about to run out, but it’s something that we need
to take a look at how we’re going to handle that initiative. So I thank you for
having this listening session; if I can be of any help just give me a call.
MS: Thank you.
FS: Good morning. I’m Jennifer Harry, Natural Resources Director of the
Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. My statement is being offered on behalf of the
Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and a 44,000 farm and world family members of our
organization. We’d like to thank Secretary Schafer and the NRCS for this
opportunity to provide comments. Entering these activities has been a
collaborative effort. But there is still work to be done: Pennsylvania’s
programs of State and Federal assistance provided to farmers under these
programs have significantly reduced nutrient and sediment loadings in
Pennsylvania waterways that feed into the Bay over the last several decades.
Pennsylvania’s agricultural and conservation program has not been developed in a
vacuum. These programs and funding opportunities established by these programs
are done with input from a variety of sources, including the Pennsylvania Farm
Bureau and other representatives of the agricultural community. Entering the
Chesapeake Bay strategy for nutrient and sediment reduction and a program to
develop under the strategy to help Pennsylvania reach nutrient and sediment
goals were developed through an extensive process for agencies as
representatives of the regulatory community discussed and attempted to reconcile
ideas and activities for water quality.
Given a degree of effort and program development that is already taken place in
Pennsylvania we strongly believe that additional Chesapeake monies to be
provided under the Farm Bill for Pennsylvania should be directed at fortified
existing agricultural conservation programs. We think it would be a serious
mistake for additional monies to be used for the creation and development of
programs that radically deviate from Pennsylvania’s existing program.
Our programs are basically sound. And any ineffectiveness of our existing
programs are not to due to a lack of planning rather to a lack of funding to
implement these plans. We would also stress the need to assure that additional
funding to be provided under the [unint] for Pennsylvania not to be used for the
purpose or effect of reducing agricultural productivity in Pennsylvania farms
within the Bay watershed.
While nutrient and sediment loading policies exist in agricultural areas in the
Bay watershed programs that reduce productivity of farm lands will have a
significant detrimental affect on Pennsylvania’s agricultural community. If
farms cannot remain viable chances are real for farms and lands that were used
for farming to be used for other non-farm reasons. Widespread conversions of
farms to non-farm uses will create a new set of problems for management of
nutrient and sediment loading in the Bay watershed.
While programs such as [unint] forest and stream buffers have their place,
excessive commitments of Farm Bill monies in these areas will have a
significantly detrimental affect on productivity and economic viability of farm
operations in the Bay watershed. We would also strongly encourage one of the
primary objectives to get accomplished through additional funding to
Pennsylvania would be to significantly increase the number of technical
personnel and improve technical assistance available to Pennsylvania farmers for
development and implementation of agricultural best management practices.
Many current families understand what generally needs to be done to reduce
nutrient and sediment loading. But they do not adequately understand how to do
it in a manner that is both environmentally effective and economically feasible
for their operation. Thank you.
Doug McKalip: Next we’d like to ask to come to the podium Mr. Bill Rohrer who is
the Administrator of the Delaware Nutrient Management Commission. And following
Bill we’ll have Mr. Jim Michael who’s a farmer from West Virginia.
MS: Good morning and thank you. I bring greetings from Delaware and bring
greetings from the Secretary of Ag, Michael Scuse, our Secretary of Natural
Resources and Environmental Control, Tom Hughes. I’d also like to point out some
of the folks within Delaware that are here this morning. We have folks from the
conservation districts. We have folks from the Department of Ag and also from
the Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Also we have representation
from the [unint] that operates in Delaware.
I think the common theme, or at least the message that we would like to provide
deals with the implementation funds that many of you know - regulating nutrient
runoff and ag runoff is not an easy task, but it’s even more difficult paying
for many of the projects that we recommend. In Delaware we feel that we’ve
addressed a strategic foundation in dealing with many of the nutrient runoff and
ag runoff challenges.
We’ve established an accountability program, a mandatory nutrient management
program where we’ve certified over 1,700 farmers and other nutrient handlers. We
have an infrastructure of consultants and nutrient planners to help farmers and
other nutrient handlers. We can account for 99 percent of the farm land in
Delaware under the mandatory nutrient management planning. That’s roughly
453,000 acres or about 1,500 different farmers. We have a functional CAFO
program where 15 farms are operating under the federally mandated CAFO program.
We’ve looked at some of the costs in implementing the state and nutrient
management law and other associated requirements and last year alone we
accounted for about $8 million that went to developing plans and implementing
plans. We’ve put a significant amount of resources and funds into strategically
moving excess poultry litter within Delaware. We were able to move about 90,000
tons of excess poultry litter to an alternative market for land application to a
new ag [unint] plant. And that is a key partnership. It was a key partnership
program last year.
We went to NRCS and NRCS did partner with us and contributed about $90,000 to
help move some of the excess poultry litter. So these are many examples of a
partnership solution in Delaware and we would like to continue that and focus on
a lot of the farm specific practices that need to be implemented from the edge
of the field to the 2,000 miles of drainage ditches throughout Delaware that we
can reduce some of the nutrient runoff around those ditches or clean the
ditches.
We clearly need to continue to strategically deal with the nutrient runoff
issues and more specifically the farm specific best management practices. So
thank you.
MS: Jim Michael, Martha Springs [ph], West Virginia, farmer, conservationist. I
want to say a 50 year conservationist plus, including 35 with the Soil
Conservation Service, the last 17 a full time farmer. So naturally I’m going to
start on the watershed approach. We need to, and we’ve heard many speakers say
it today, to implement the Bay program more prominently. We need to refocus on
the watershed approach; that is local watershed committees, that is targeting
problem areas.
And in these we need to step up the agricultural practice implementation; those
that will control runoff. I’m concerned that, I should say too I believe water
is our number one issue here in the Northeast of the future. Water. It is in my
state. So we got to do the program to carry that out. I’m glad the Chief is here
because I need to remind him in recent years somehow we lost the watershed
division in the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Somehow that got closed
out. We better be thinking about bringing it back to implement these strategic
water programs in our country.
It’s been said a lot today and I’m so proud that people that said it: that
technical assistance is really the key. We look at technical assistance as you
have a staff out there that meet with the land users, land owners and they don’t
do it overnight, but develop that relationship to put these conservation
measures on the land. And we really see the need for NRCS stepping up that
technical assistance, maybe just as important as this financial assistance is to
have those leaders out there.
We’re hurting in the area of engineering and watershed specialties to work with
the farmer and land users. My friends from the West Virginia Poultry Association
related to the DEPs maybe three or four priority watersheds. I happen to live in
one of them, Sleepy Creek Watershed. Being a conservationist I naturally steered
the local committee, put this plan together in DEP and state conservation
agencies accordingly. We needed more NRCS help there in planning. We had to do
it almost without because they’re loaded with the other programs. This approach
is going to take technical assistance, just as important as dollars.
And again I’d like to reiterate the assistance should include technical people
that can deal with land users and deal with water management. We’re still in an
era of needing to store storm water to control water runoff as well as treating
the new management and all the other issues. EQIP has served well in our state.
We do miss, again on the watershed, we miss the PL534 and PL566 that went to the
[unint].
Shifting to other issues - agriculture is important in our area. It’s a
preferred land use. We need to develop a partner approach. The Ranch and Farm
Land Protection program is very helpful in the Chesapeake Bay and our state to
assist those farmers that want to commit the land for potential use in
agriculture, which is very helpful to the open space. Looking at other programs
I don’t know enough about Conservation Stewardship [Program] yet and I’m
concerned. The old CSP had broader reins than we ever got to use.
So to the NRCS we need to look at this stewardship program. Again focus it
against the key land owners, the key farmers to get the job done. Concern about
this paying of payment of a limited amount per acre: I don’t know if that will
really reward the conservation. I really appreciate the opportunity of being
here today and NRCS conducting this session and look forward to a better Bay.
Thank you. (APPLAUSE)
Doug McKalip: There are a few folks here with our Congressional office, at least
in the Maryland delegation. Senator Ben Cardin has a staffer, Mike Burke who is
here. Mike is going to make a few remarks. Also Gary Decker with Congressman
Sarbanes, if you can stand up and identify yourself. And as always, Gary is
available if folks have any issues they’d like to bring up with him afterwards.
Following remarks with Mr. Burke from Senator Cardin’s office we’ll hear from
Eileen McLellan. Mike [unint].
MS: Great. Thanks so much. My name is Mike Burke, Projects Director for Senator
Ben Cardin. And Bailey Fine [ph], the Senator’s state director is also here this
morning. I wanted to give you a quick perspective from those that wrote the law
and what we had in mind. The House side, we’ve got Congressman Sarbanes here,
there are a number of members of Congress that were on the House side which were
particularly important, Congressman Holden from Pennsylvania, Congressman
Goodlatte from Virginia are particularly noteworthy.
But I also wanted to call out Congressman Chris Van Hollen from Maryland who
probably was more instrumental in drafting and helping to usher through this
legislation than anyone else. On the Senate side Senator Casey is the only
member of the Chesapeake Bay watershed states that is represented on the
agriculture committee. He played obviously a key role. The senators asked
Senator Cardin to play a coordinating role on all of the 12 senators within the
watershed in order to make sure that the Chesapeake interests were properly
reflected in this Farm Bill.
And to that end there were three things that we wanted to try to focus on and
just specifically make note of. Number one, in the Bill, the legislation’s
purpose is clear. I won’t read you all of the sections of the reasons for the
legislation but it says in the establishment purpose clause that the Secretary
shall assist producers in implementing conservation activities on agricultural
lands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed for the purposes of number one, improving
water quality.
There are others that are listed, but I think that continues to be the focus of
what this legislation is about. There are within that a number of watersheds
that are specifically called out for special attention, the Susquehanna, the
Potomac, the Shenandoah and the Putaxent. The first two, the Susquehanna and the
Potomac, account for about 70 percent of the freshwater flow into the Chesapeake
Bay. When you add in those other major tributaries you’re talking about a very
substantial portion of the freshwater flow into the Chesapeake Bay. These are
our key drainage areas; those are the ones that need attention.
The more important thing than those particular watersheds that were called out
was the fact that as we’ve heard other speakers here say the attention has to be
done on the watershed basis, whether it’s the large watersheds we’re talking
about here, sub watersheds or down to the six unit HUC units that were mentioned
earlier. Those are the kinds of approaches that need to be taken for the
implementation.
Number two, besides the focus on water quality, number two is targeting. The
legislation again, we had had in an earlier version of the legislation some
language talking about the need for NRCS and for USDA to be doing some targeting
work. That was scrapped with the recognition that a lot of the targeting work
has already been done. We know where the hot spots are. The Chesapeake Bay
program has developed an awful lot of useful tools to help us direct where those
conservation dollars should go. As Ann Swanson said earlier the importance here
is not that the dollars be spread evenly across every watershed in every state,
the focus is on water quality improvements and that means focus on the hot
spots.
And finally let me talk about the need for the dollars. As we’ve heard from so
many of our farmers, people from Secretary Richardson and Deputy Secretary Buddy
Hanson in Maryland have been telling us that our farmers are ready to do the job
but they needed the funds to do it. And that’s what this legislation provides,
$188 million of mandatory funds that are available for conservation purposes.
These funds are additive. They are in addition to all of the funds that are
available for the conservation programs that our states are normally available
for.
Let me quote again from the Congressional Record: Senator Cardin which on the
floor of the Senate when we were doing the consideration of the Bill asked the
Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Senator Harkin and the ranking Republican
member, Senator Chambliss, did you want to have a conversation on the floor.
Senator Harkin said this funding is separate from EQIP; it is not intended to
offset funding allocated under that program.
Senator Chambliss added that the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Conservation program
to be implemented by the NRCS in addition to EQIP or any other existing
conservation program. These dollars are meant to be extra dollars for the
conservation programs in the Chesapeake region. So those are the three messages
that I want to leave you with. Focus on water quality, focus on targeting and
that these dollars are additive. Thanks for your time. (APPLAUSE)
Doug McKalip: Eileen McLlellan with the Environmental Defense Fund followed by
Matt Ehrhart with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Scott Sickvohm from the
Upper Susquehanna Coalition.
Female Speaker (FS): Good morning. I’m Eileen McClellan from the Environmental
Defense Fund. And first thank you for the opportunity to provide comments. We
will be submitting written comments but I want to basically highlight a few
important points which will have some familiarity because they’ve been brought
up by some of previous speakers. But they are so important I think they should
be reiterated.
The first to follow on Mike Burke’s comments that you just heard, the importance
of this additional funding. We will continue to see the routine allocations of
this report. You’ll see the routine allocation of EQIP, CSP and the other Farm
Bill programs. We would prefer that the funding here clearly be additional to
that and that there not be any reduction of the routine allocations as an offset
to that. We’re happy to work with you. We understand this is beyond NRCS’s
control, but we are very happy to work with you in discussions with [unint],
Congress and others to ensure that this is the case.
Secondly, we think it’s very important that there be a strategic plan for the
use of these funds. Ann Swanson mentioned earlier the use of a notice of funding
availability as a way of developing that strategic plan so that all in the
region have an opportunity to comment and so that the tax payers who are
ultimately funding this program are able to see how the dollars will be
directed.
Thirdly, last year we published a report called Farming for Clean Water, which I
think we shared with many of you there. And in that report we drew attention to
the need for prioritization: prioritization of specific geographic areas. We
know, as others have mentioned, which are the sub watersheds which currently
deliver the greatest nutrient sediment flows to the Bay and therefore provide
the greatest opportunity to reduce those levels, but in addition to targeting of
the practices which will make the greatest benefit in those watersheds.
Clearly this is not a one size fits all approach across the Bay or even from
state to state. We need to have the right practices in the right places. And in
many cases those practices are advanced practices beyond what is typically
supported through the existing EQIP allocations and I’m thinking here things
such as dairy feed management, precision agriculture and enhanced nutrient
management, continuous no till and so on.
These are not rocket science practices, but they are not at the moment the
recipients of much funding. We would like to see that changed and we offer as an
example what Maryland NRCS has been able to do through a tiered payment where
farmers receive additional payments for higher levels of management for these
practices that do so much to reduce nutrients and sediment.
And you have heard finally from almost every speaker here of the need for
enhanced technical assistance. Marketing these programs to farmers and getting
the practices on the ground is the key challenge for restoring the Chesapeake
Bay. And we would encourage that the state conservationists at each state in the
Bay watershed develop a plan which will identify how that marketing and how each
will be accomplished using not only the resources of NRCS itself but looking to
the private sector of the technical service providers, NGOs, the state agencies
and others to build in and advance the partnership that will be needed to
deliver these practices on the ground.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide these suggestions and we are ready to
work with you and look forward to helping advance the course of a clean
Chesapeake Bay. Thanks.
MS: Hi, I’m Matt Ehrhart - I’m the Pennsylvania Executive Director of the
Chesapeake Bay Foundation. On behalf of Will Baker and the Foundation I’d like
to thank Chief Lancaster and the rest of the panel for convening this listening
session today. I’d also like to thank our Federal delegation and all the
partners - many of who are [unint] for making this funding a reality. We’ll be
submitting more comprehensive written comments.
I’d like to say, first of all I’ve been privileged to have an ongoing working
partnership with Craig Derrickson and the Pennsylvania NRCS - working with
hundreds of farmers delivering thousands of miles of CREP buffers. And some of
the lessons learned there are things we’ve tried to apply to this thought
process. In order to make a significant impact on the landscape we need to keep
our programs clear, simple, minimize additional bureaucracy and have an
effective and efficient implementation structure.
And I think the comments which I’ll make in key points follow that outline. As
has been said previously these Chesapeake Bay funds need to be additional and
supplemental to other existing programs and we need to deliver them through
existing effective tools such as EQIP with separate record keeping and
prioritization to make sure that the key on the ground practices get on the
ground. The second thing I’d like to focus on is technical assistance. As I
think has been noted over and over here we have to figure out how to
appropriately address this and I think ultimately means broader development and
establishment of technical service provider-ship programs, both through
conservation districts and through NGOs and other entities who are able to
provide that service.
Additionally I think we need to recognize that part of that discussion has to
include being an outreach, to penetrate the farmers and the land owners who are
not being addressed or enrolled in current programs. To ultimately have the same
subset of landowners sign up over and over again we miss the folks who we need
to be improving the conservation practices on their farms.
We think that each state can adopt a suite of priority practices. The Commission
has put together a great list. Virginia has already sort of focused on five key
practices. And I think in each state geography you can focus on the key
practices that we need to get on the ground in a much larger number and
concentration. We also, as has been noted again, need to focus on geographic
priorities. We have the targeting tools to do that in Sparrow model and others -
to clearly tell us where we need to focus our priorities and initiative. And to
the extent it’s possible we need to do that.
I also believe we need to focus on accountability as well and look at an annual
review of practices is implemented to make sure that we are getting the on the
ground changes that we need. That we can look at practices under contract,
practices completed to make sure that we are in a focused manner going about
improving the natural water quality indicators. And as has been recognized by
many others - those of us here today, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation included -
who’ve been part of this discussion are happy to help in any way possible,
whether that’s at policy level or on the ground. Thank you.
MS: Thank you.
MS: Hello, my name’s Scott Sickvohm. I’m up here to represent the Susquehanna
Coalition. And for those of you who aren’t familiar with the Coalition it’s a
group of soil and water conservation districts that make up the New York portion
of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, 16 conservation districts in all. We also
include three in Pennsylvania, just north of Lawanda [ph]. I, myself, am the
district manager of Montego [ph] County soil and water conservation district [unint]
of the Susquehanna.
And I have to say that this is my first trip to this part of the country and
it’s great to see the Bay first hand. (LAUGHTER) And it’s nice to make the link
in my mind. It’s something that I try very hard to promote in central New York
is the connectivity between the river in our part of the state and what’s
happening right here. We’ve made a lot of hay with that connection and the
Coalition has, it comes together for that reason.
The Coalition is a group that’s been very successful in getting funds from
Federal agencies such as the EPA to develop our New York state tributary
strategy, which will allow participation in the Chesapeake Bay program for New
York state. We’ve had a lot of success with the targeted watershed grant
promoting rotational grazing, road ditch restoration, low impact development and
the like, and also done just a lot of [unint] work in wetland restoration.
I think the Coalition’s point of view - what we are really looking forward to -
is opening up I think perhaps a broader dialogue with our NRCS partners to look
at things from the eight digit HUC I think that people have been mentioning. But
I think that process would be done this morning with Mr. Brooks and I hope it
will continue with Mr. Havarotti [ph].
My voice though as a district manager comes probably from very low down. I’ve
tried to take the pulse of my colleagues and other district managers in New York
to see what this new funding could mean to them and everybody who is absolutely
excited to hear that it was being made available following some years I guess of
budget declines. In New York the business model has had an impact on the way the
conservation districts have been able to operate.
There’s been a degree of withdrawal of services from the partnership and we’re
hoping that this will perhaps turn the tide. And we’re certainly very thankful
to our congressional leaders for making this part of the Farm Bill. One thing
that came up in conversation with my colleagues was the need for, and it’s been
repeated frequently here today, was technical assistance. We are really where
the rubber meets the road with outstanding [unint] it’s going to be very
difficult to engage farmers to make them understand and to get those BMPs
installed.
This sentiment in New York is that the conservation districts can play a very
good role in helping that happen and perhaps offer agreements that we’ve seen
NRCS and those districts would be beneficial. Another thing that’s come up
frequently is the availability of engineering services. The districts are in a
position now of making signs for BMPs but having nowhere to bring them to be
approved or to have to engage the private sector which can be a very costly
endeavor when you’re trying to get these things done.
Also [unint] with the state’s AEMA [ph] program would also be beneficial. They
do a lot of things that are parallel to one another. And we think that they’re
complementary and [unint]. We will also be submitting written comments to Mr.
Lawson, probably a fairly dense document, very specific.
But for those three things I’ll just give you a general flavor and also by way
of introduction to everybody there is a letter to let everybody know we are
there and that we [unint]. Everything we do is for the benefit of the Bay and a
large part of our success has been because of outreach and partnership. So I
thank everybody for the attention and hope that [unint].
MS: Thank you.
Doug McKalip: I’d like to call forward Mr. Carl Brown with the Pennsylvania
State Conservation Commission. And following Carl will be Mr. Russ Baxter,
Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. If Mr. Brown is not present
is Mr. Baxter present?
MS: Good morning. Greetings from Virginia. I’m pleased to be here to represent
Secretary of Natural Resources President Brian [ph] as well as my agency which
is the lead agency in Virginia for non-point source pollution. Obviously I join
the other states and all of the folks here in welcoming this new Chesapeake Bay
provision of the Farm Bill.
In Virginia we have taken great strides to meet our Chesapeake Bay water quality
goals. As Governor Kaine reported last winter through a combination of grant and
loan funding and innovative nutrient training program and strict regulations
we’re on track to meet our 2010 point source goals. Beginning in the
administration of Governor Warner and now the Kaine administration we’ve
committed more than a half billion dollars to point source upgrades and
municipal sewage treatment plants. We are now shifting in our focus to non-point
source programs, particularly agriculture.
In 2006 the Virginia General Assembly [unint] further commitments to improving
state waters through the passage of the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia Waters
Cleanup Plan. This plan will serve as the State’s strategies that are referenced
in the Farm Bill. I would note that summaries and commentary on the Farm Bill
set tributary strategies, but the language is the active state strategies.
Virginia’s plan focuses on priority areas that include actions to address
non-point source pollution, contributions from agricultural lands, in addition
to many other areas. In the agricultural areas, as Ricky Rash and others have
noted this morning we are focusing on five priority practices: nutrient
management, cover crops, continuous no till and other conservation tillage,
stream fencing and stream site buffer planning, wet area buffers as they’re
known in [unint].
In Virginia we have a strong and effective working relationship with the NRCS
staff. I’m pleased that Jack Bricker and Ken Carter traveled up from Richmond
here today, and also our 47 soil and water conservation districts that are ably
represented by Ricky Rash. Because of these partnerships we’re able to maximize
both the NRCS EQIP funding and Virginia’s agricultural BMP cost share program by
ensuring that funds are most efficiently spent and that they complement each
other.
Despite our progress the needed levels of implementation of just our priority
practices remain significant; current projections to implement these BMPs at
needed levels exceeds $274 million of state dollars in the Chesapeake Bay
watershed over the next six years. And once these practices are in place of
maintaining these BMPs over time, it will require additional financial support.
We’ve been active in many other regions on the agricultural water quality front.
We’re using innovative marketing outreach tools to reach agricultural operators
and promote the assistance of soil and water conservation districts. We sign
memorandums of agreement with the six major poultry companies in Virginia,
setting goals for phosphorus reductions through the use of, excuse me the use of
[unint] in feed for cooperatively working with the industry to transport chicken
litter.
And we’re cooperating with other agricultural organizations and a unique
coalition that has formed in Virginia to support non-point source funding, a
coalition that includes both conservation organizations and agricultural
organizations, a number up here today, the Bay Foundation, the Virginia
Dairyman’s Association, the Virginia Farm Bureau and the Virginia Association of
Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
Finally with the support of Governor Kaine we’re finalizing the initiatives to
further accelerate reductions from agriculture, in his capacity as the
agricultural champion for the Chesapeake Executive Council, including
consideration of more flexible standards for fencing that are currently provided
for in CREP and enhanced cost sharing in impaired watersheds. We look forward to
working with NRCS on these initiatives.
In the time I have remaining, apparently two minutes, I’d like to just bring up
five key points that we would like you to consider as implementation when the
Farm Bill begins. First, that these state funds are provided to the states
through existing USDA programs. In Virginia this means directing federal funds
through EQIP. We recognize that other states may have other preferences, which
USDA programs that best match their needs, for us it’s EQIP.
Second is maximum flexibility must be provided to the states to use these and
target these additional monies in ways that complement our ongoing efforts. In
short, we need to minimize the red tape and allow each state to direct and
target these monies in ways that complement our existing programs.
Thirdly we ask that the rules and requirements for the expenditure of these
funds be resolved at an accelerated pace so that each state can be ready to make
ultimate use of these monies when they are available. States must know the
regulatory framework as soon as possible so the details of state implementation
can be resolved in a timely fashion.
Fourth we ask that USDA ensure full state consultation and participation in the
development of the environmental services standards under subtitle J of the
conservation title. We are working actively on ecosystem service markets in
Virginia and we need to be at the table when the federal government considers
these same issues.
Finally, we would very cordially ask that USDA consider conducting listening
sessions in each of the watershed states or at a minimum in the watersheds that
have been designated for special consideration in the Bill. In Virginia that’s
the Shenandoah River and we would also expect to participate in any session
related to the Potomac River.
We look forward to ensuring that these Farm Bill funds are effectively spent and
we thank you very much for your participation here today and your ongoing
participation in consultation with the states as this moves forward. Thanks very
much.
MS: Thank you very much.
Doug McKalip: Next Mr. Brown from Pennsylvania Commission. And just by way of a
status report I’ve got down on my list probably about 16 additional speakers,
with the suggestion that you try to keep your comments to five minutes; you
don’t have to fill up the entire five minutes if you don’t have that much
material.
But after Mr. Brown we’ll have Bernie Marczyk from Ducks Unlimited, Annapolis
Office and also Mike Slattery with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. By
my count the number of speakers we have,, and the time we should truly be able
to easily come in is by about 1 pm, even earlier than one. And if there are
additional folks that did not register to speak, please come and see me, we’ll
make sure that you get on the list. Carl.
MS: Good morning. My name’s Carl Brown, I’m Executive Secretary of the
Pennsylvania State Conservation Commission. Our Commission’s an 11 member body
that’s charged with the conservation of soil and water resources of
Pennsylvania. Our Commission has a diverse membership with four partners, two
public members, [unint] of agriculture, director of cooperative extension for
Secretary of Agriculture, Dennis Wolff who you’ve heard from this morning and
our Secretary of Environmental Protection as well as our NRCS state
conservationist.
We enjoy a great working relationship with our NRCS staff and Greg Garrison in
Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvania’s very proud that their partnerships that they
have and the conservation partnership of Pennsylvania. We work closely with our
conservation districts in Pennsylvania. There are 66 districts throughout
Pennsylvania of 528 volunteer district directors, including 500 professional
staff, many of whom work in agriculture and conservation areas, in I think
cooperation and partnership with NRCS through the county offices.
I will repeat a lot of what’s been said this morning, but I do think that
Congress got it right in formulating the Chesapeake Bay watershed program
divisions. I think in a nutshell they said a couple of things. One is to keep it
simple; two, use existing programs and mechanisms in distributing these funds;
three, stay focused on watersheds and cost effectiveness; especially allow the
states discretion to target problems and concerns. Four, allow the conservation
partnership of each state to do what they do best, including conservation best
management practices on the ground. And finally, five, make sure we ensure
adequate technical assistance as available
As a Commission we fully agree with these basic principles and we encourage UDSA
to closely follow them in the development and implementation of these new
programs. I think it’s interesting we heard from congressmen this morning, but I
think they said a number of things that are important. First, Congress
recognized that we don’t need additional studies. We need these BMPs on the
ground.
Simply said it’s not going to focus on putting these plans, these BMPs on the
ground. And that’s what NRCS and partnerships in the states do best. Congress
recognized the need that we don’t need new programs, we simply need to use
existing programs, put these funds on the ground in a timely and efficient
manner. In Pennsylvania we believe that the EQIP program is probably the best
tool to be able to do that. But we also believe that there are other means that
could be used through other NRCS programs.
Congress targeted specific rivers for initial consideration in distributing
these funds. We believe that we need to target priority watersheds within our
state in order to have the greatest level of success. It’s been said numerous
times we know where the problems are. We have the maps, we have the studies, we
have the resources to tell us what the problems are. We need to allow these
funds to flow through those programs to those targeted areas that the states
prioritize to be able to get the best value for our buck.
We know the best management practices. Secretary Wolff in his comments made note
of the priorities that we have in Pennsylvania. I won’t reiterate those, but
they are very similar to all the others that we’ve heard this morning in regards
to priority practices that need [unint].
I’ll take the last couple of minutes here to talk about technical assistance.
The Chesapeake Bay funding in Pennsylvania that’s come through in this Farm Bill
has the potential to increase the practices significantly. We truly appreciate
that. But as it’s been said repeatedly and it’s worth repeating: you can’t put
those practices on the ground without technical assistance and without technical
people.
The increases in technical dollars - financial dollars needs to increase
technical assistance. You can’t be effective putting those practices on the
ground if you don’t allocate those resources. Now we believe that with the
increase of technical assistance funds each state conservationist should have
discretions to adopt a strategy that utilizes these additional funds in a manner
that best meets the technical service delivery needs in that particular state.
In Pennsylvania we believe strongly and we’ve invested in a membership technical
assistance program that involves not only NRCS but the state agencies and
conservation districts and private service, private sector technical service
providers who think that each state is best prepared to be able to determine how
to allocate those additional technical assistance service funds.
Pennsylvania has stepped up to the table. We’ve put about $6.3 million last year
into about 120 [unint] county conservation districts. A significant number of
those are county district staffed. All those particular ones are ag related
positions. And I think Pennsylvania as far as your conservation districts have
tremendous capacity. As I said earlier we work closely with NRCS in those county
offices and our districts are prepared, are ready as funds are available to step
up and work hand in hand, side by side with NRCS and the counterparts in those
offices to help put those practices on the ground.
So I’d like to thank you for the opportunity. I’d like to encourage you to as we
said keep it simple, use existing programs, get [unint], give us the ability to
help move this Bay ahead into [unint]. Thank you.
Doug McKalip: Bernie Marczyk with Ducks Unlimited Capital Chapter, if we could
ask Mike Slattery to come forward to the other microphone and be on deck for …
actually from the Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
MS: Good morning. My name’s Bernie Marczyk, here on behalf of a million
supporters of Ducks Unlimited across North America. Chief Lancaster and panel we
appreciate you spending the time here today to come into this valuable program
and the new funding coming into the Chesapeake Bay watershed. As you all know
the Bay is a priority area for Ducks Unlimited as well for wintering waterfowl
that venture down here every year from across the country and across North
America.
We have focused our efforts here and partner very closely with NRCS and other
federal partners around the country but also in the Bay watershed. And we look
forward to continuing that opportunity to partner with these other organizations
as well as federal government and state government partners.
Ducks Unlimited has biological and technical expertise in the watershed to
implement a lot of the programs that have been mentioned before me today. And
I’ll just very briefly summarize the three programs we like to focus on where we
have worked with NRCS and we’d like to work in the future with NRCS with this
new funding. We’ve submitted our written comments before, about a month ago, and
we’ll resubmit them again.
First is Wetland Reserve Program. We work around the country and this would be a
great program for the Bay. As you all know wetlands are kidneys for the Bay to
filter out the nutrients and sediment that come into the Bay watershed. Second,
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program have varying buffers that are set up
through this, [unint] are incredible filters as well for the nutrients and
sediments coming into the Bay.
And finally Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, WHIP, a complementary program
to go with WRP into [unint]. We believe these funds can be spent very
efficiently and effectively in a cost effective manner. And I’ll close that
Ducks Unlimited looks forward to the opportunity to continue our partnership
with NRCS and all the work we do around the country and in the Bay watershed and
we look forward to continuing that relationship in the future. Thank you very
much.
MS: Thank you.
MS: Good morning. My name’s Mike Slattery of the Eastern Partnership Office,
Director of the Fish and Wildlife Foundation. I’d like to thank the panel for
taking the time to listen to us all here today. In particular I’d like to thank
our friends at USDA and NRCS for the strong support and partnership that the
foundation shares with the department and with the states. We are very grateful
for the support that you’ve shown us.
We’ll be submitting some written comments so I’m not going to delve in any
detail what it is that we have to share with you, but I do want to point out one
specific thing. The Foundation has recently undergone some formative change and
is in the interest of targeting and leveraging measurement as we’ve all heard
about from other partners here today, we’re looking forward to really much more
focused investments of our funds to very targeted natural resources conservation
initiatives.
They’re called our keystone initiatives and although we have had a long history
of coordinating and supporting with other partners at the Chesapeake Bay
recovery effort so it would sound a little bit odd for me to say this, but we
are going to be focusing on a significant additional amount of investment in the
Chesapeake Bay recovery effort through the Foundation’s work, or we hope to.
We’ll be taking to our board next month a keystone initiative concept that is
going to be focused on several estuaries around the country. Because of our
history here in the Chesapeake region, because of the investment that is being
made here and because of the strength of the relationship we have here we’re
hoping that we’ll be selecting the Chesapeake as the first focal area as a pilot
for what we hope will be a model to take to other estuaries around the country.
In that vein we have begun to discuss several specific elements, one of which
may be of interest to others in the room today and to yourself, one of which is
a market based approach, a nutrient trading approach that we would hope to play
a fundamental role in building that would yield some success here in the
Chesapeake Bay watershed and hopefully would be successful enough to apply in
other estuaries that are in need of such assistance.
We’ve had some cursory discussions with some partners at the Walton Family
Foundation and the Pac [ph] Foundation. And they have expressed a keen interest
in a collaboration with us to invest with us and with our partners in the
building of such a program that we’d all be very proud of. As I said those
discussions are cursory.
But I point that out as a specific thing today because I think it represents a
potential leveraging opportunity that could be very, very significant as we move
forward with the investment of these Farm Bill funds that you so graciously help
to direct in the name of conservation. With that I’ll step aside and say thank
you again for your time.
Doug McKalip: I recognize a few farmers have come a long way this morning, as I
know all of you have. Mr. John May of Rockingham County, beef and poultry farmer
and also Mr. Mike Phillips of Rockingham County, beef farmer as well. Mr. May,
if you can please come forward.
MS: Thank you for this opportunity. I’m John May, farmer, Shenandoah Valley. I
was an early adopter of drought and clear storage facilities, EQIP program for
watering and cross fencing and rotation of grazing our livestock. Went into the
CREP program, we had a 100 acres of, approximately 100 acres of ground in the
foresting area buffer programs. And most lately have gone into harden [ph]
feeding areas and feeding sheds.
I would contend, although I’m a recipient of any financial benefits of these
programs, that it’s not the money that would solve the problems that are
fundamental to the health of the Bay. But it would be investment in people that
will change the environmental issues which affect the Bay. And what has happened
is we have not been flexible enough with the programs. We need people who can
have the dream of the end result we need to have. We have taken programs such as
CREP and installed seven contracts and stopped before the eighth and ninth
contract which we should have installed because there was a lack of flexibility.
We need to have people that have that local contact to work with farmers and
carry this forward. As many speakers have said earlier there need to be the
technical services that the people in the field have direct [unint]. Two of the
conservationists that I admire throughout history would be Charlie Boyles [ph]
who went into Southern Ohio in strip mine coal country and with very low tech,
very basic environmental methods reclaimed the farm and turned it into a
research station for Ohio State.
Another would be Louie Brahmfield [ph] who came back, a Pulitzer prize winning
author, spending two decades in Europe and went to Hollowbart [ph] Farm in
Pleasant Valley in Ohio as well, and took totally depleted soils and turned them
around and made [unint] - conservationists even to this day. We do not need to
reinvent the wheel. The programs that we need are already in existence. We need
to add flexibility to them, we need to add compact of the basic services to the
ground level. That report is the most important.
Twice in this calendar year our farm has been positively affected by the
services of different agencies of the government. The most recent was a week
ago, actually suffering from an issue probably resulting from accessory [ph] and
we are very used to droughts. But we have corn that may be six feet tall and 18
inches tall standing side by side.
And there was a group of conservationists and government officials that came out
and stood in that field and analyzed the situation and recognized the complexity
of the situation and the results were not technical or far off expenditures of
funds but went back to rotational crop philosophies, reduction of brescas [ph]
being added to a cover crop, to all of these common basic principles of
conservation [unint]. I will contend that it’s these people with vision, these
people that actually stand on the ground and interact with the farmers that make
the difference in the success of those expenditures. (APPLAUSE)
Doug McKalip: Okay, and we’ve got Mike. And also George Rohror is here from
Rockingham County. George will be next and then Wilmer Stoneman who’s with the
Virginia Farm Bureau.
MS: I want to thank you all for letting me come today and John, did you take
mine, you said what I wanted to say. So I don’t know if I’m going to say the
same thing or not, but now I’ve got to go off the cuff a little bit. What I
wanted to talk about a little bit is a little bit different than what John said.
My wife and I sit on the farm, both my grandfathers on my mom’s side and my
father’s side and my great grandfather’s farm. And there’s no one in the country
that loves American agriculture as much as I. They may equal me, but not greater
than, because it’s a great passion. And I have to warn you all that you said
five minutes was all you were going to allow me, well, folks that know me know I
can’t even say my name in five minutes, because I can talk the ear of a stalk of
corn, especially when something is very passionate to me.
So I’m going to talk a little bit about some of the things that I see as a
farmer and I see that we need to concentrate on other than what John has already
alluded to, he stole part of my things. But the one thing I haven’t heard talked
about much today is preservation farmland. We got to figure out some way we can
preserve this farmland, because folks what we’re looking at here, you talk about
farmland, our farm homeland security.
Just think how strong America agriculture is to our nation. In other words
militaries can’t function without us providing them food. We are the backbone of
the nation. And I think that message needs to be sent out and how we’re going to
go about doing it. I’m sorry, I’m going kind of off the cuff, but that’s one of
the things that kind of stuck in my mind the most. And the other thing is I will
keep it even briefer than I anticipated, but there is one thing that I’ve heard
time and time and time again today about technical assistance, how important it
is.
And I want to add to that a little bit, you want people that are knowledgeable
and well trained in that field. And you got them out there and I’ve been around
that. And I’m going to speak on experience. It cost you all a dime of what that
experience you all paid a gentleman 31 years ago in September when a young man
about 17 years old plowed [unint].
And when that technician came out to the fields to talk with that young man that
was trying to get started farming, he talked to him about how that fields are
being eroded and the young man said to him I cannot see erosion, I don’t see it.
And he pulled out a dime, 31 years ago, come September, and he said you see that
that is five tons an acre. From that example, from that technician, 31 years
ago, that young man looked at it and started scratching his head and looking
more closer - a little more closer.
And how many people do you think that young man has touched and talked to and
tried to educate as well from 31 years ago [unint]? You’re looking at that young
man today. Fifteen years I’m doing continuous no till. But it came from the
thickness of a dime, standing on a hillside, not 15 feet of where we were
standing that day.
I’m sorry I kind of went off the cuff, but I think what we need to look at,
let’s go back to that technician, we need those technicians in the field, good,
well trained. But most importantly look at upper brass people here, forgive me
for saying this because I’m going to tell you what I feel, you got to listen to
those technicians. They are your ears and eyes out there; they see. And do not
squash their creativity of what they can come up with; that creativity likes
flexible programs.
You need to sit and listen to the folks. There are ways we can do things and
make that program more flexible to fit the need of the farmer. And on that note
I’m going to say goodbye and thanks again for having me. (APPLAUSE)
Doug McKalip: George Rohror with Rockingham County, poultry and dairy farmer and
then Wilmer from the Virginia Farm Bureau.
MS: George, just before you start let me thank Assistant Secretary Rutherford
for coming today. I know he’s got to get back. I hope when you go back and meet
with the Secretary and sub Cabinet you let him know what a large crowd we had
and how passionate folks were about this issue. And so we again appreciate you
coming today.
Boyd Rutherford: Absolutely. Thank you.
MS: Good morning. I am a dairy and poultry farmer from Rockingham County,
Virginia, in part of the Shenandoah Valley, part of the Chesapeake Bay
watershed. I rode with John and Mike and they really have done a good job of
covering things. I guess I can take my comments, we were all thinking along the
same lines, but a few thoughts I had as we look at the best way to get the most
for these conservation dollars in our area. I believe that livestock exclusion
from streams is probably of the utmost importance. I also believe that assisting
in nutrient management planning and supporting that with dollars is extremely
important.
In both of these instances, as Mike said, flexibility in my opinion is key. What
works on somebody else’s farm may not work on mine. Each farm is unique,
depending on the operation and the geographical conditions, and we need to have
flexibility if we’re going to have people participate. There’s been much made of
technical support here this morning. Again, that’s of utmost importance, but
it’s giving, as Michael alluded to, it’s giving the people on the ground time,
good relationships, making use of their expertise, but also giving them the
flexibility to change.
I realize there needs to be some wide overall set of regulations that we operate
by. These people on the ground need to have the flexibility to tailor programs
to a specific situation to an individual farm. And if we’re going to be as
successful as we can be, and that we need to be, that’s going to be very
important.
I think another thing, the programs that we look at need, we need to look at how
they affect farmer’s bottom line; everything we do in agriculture we have to
look at from that perspective. Is it going to be negative, is it going to be
positive, is it going to be neutral. We certainly cannot afford a negative
effect to our bottom line. We would prefer that it not be neutral, but you know
sometimes that may have to be the case. But certainly that long term is a large
consideration. And that’s my comments. Thank you.
MS: Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE)
MS: Chief Lancaster, members of the panel: my name is Wilmer Stoneman. I
represent the 38,000 producer members of Virginia Farm Bureau. And you’ve heard
a good number of presentations today from Virginia, especially the last three or
four actual Virginia farmers. You’ve also heard from our President of our Soil
and Water Conservation District Directors and a number of other Virginians. And
I’ve rewritten my comments four or five times, but I’m going to try to make it
as brief as I can.
I want to steal a comment or quote from one of our environmental agency staff.
What we’re about in order to change water quality in the Chesapeake Bay: it’s
got to be everybody, everywhere, all the time. We can target too much. We can
prioritize too much. We can make standards too stiff. We can be slow in
application. And we can be concerned about equitable distribution.
We tend to believe that special consideration for the watersheds says yes, pay
attention to them, but don’t forget about the other farmers, especially those in
Virginia, and I’ve got one or two that are probably going to speak here in a few
minutes, that can see the Bay, that can touch the Bay, that have an affect on
the Bay, but aren’t in that particular watershed. And so when the funds are
distributed, yes, pay special, give special consideration to that watershed that
happens to affect Virginia, but keep in mind that there are other farmers out
there, there are other technical assistance staff people out there that may be
underused that could implement a good number of, a good bit of these particular
dollars.
I want to touch on market based solutions. Market based solutions are wonderful
things. But in certain cases they’re not ready for prime time yet. We think you
ought to stick to the practices and programs that we’ve identified here today,
especially nutrient management, cover crops, conservation tillage, stream
fencing and buffers. Those are five practices that you’ve heard about on and on
and on today. Those are practices that we can implement today.
Our interpretation of Congress’s wishes was to do something today. We’re part of
a coalition in Virginia that Ann and Ricky Rash and others have mentioned and
we’re trying to find stable sources of funding in order to make an improvement,
a marked improvement which gets us back to everywhere, everybody, everywhere,
all the time. We’ve got to find the practices, and we believe those five are the
ones that can make the Bay, make a change in the Bay.
Flexible standards are certainly important. You’ve heard from the folks from
Virginia, we’re going to beat that drum to death. But also empower farmers.
Farmers can do nutrient management plans. With the right information and the
right tools empower them to write those plans, so that you have a relief on
technical assistance.
And last, but not least, I can’t leave the podium or the stand without talking
about farmland preservation. Farmland or farming has been said at least once in
here today is the number one BMP for water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, just
by farming it and not developing. Putting in trees, putting in farm production
is the best VMP for the farm. So keep in mind we’ve talked a lot about BMP
today, but also remember farmland preservation. Thank you.
Doug McKalip: I may mispronounce his name and I apologize, we’d like to have
Gary Lantz with Cannon Hill Farms [ph] come forward. Cannon Hill Farms is not
identified with a state name. I guess we’ll learn about that when Mr. Lantz
comes forward. And then Jim Baird with American Farmland Trust will be next. Mr.
Lantz.
MS: Good morning. My name is Gary Lantz and I’m from Shenandoah County. And
Cannon Hill Farm is a family farming operation consisting of 272 certified
organic acres. The farm is located just west of Interstate 81 at Mount Jackson,
exit 273. Shenandoah County ranks fifth in the state in agriculture and farming
is the number one industry in Shenandoah County next to tourism.
We are in our fifth year of being certified organic and our eighth year of being
herbicide, pesticide and synthetic fertilizer free. We are on Virginia’s short
list of farms that has control of its animals from conception to consumption. We
raise Belted Galloway [ph] cattle: better known as the Oreo cow. We also have [unint]
and Angus cattle and Tamworth hogs. Our crops include alfalfa hay, grass hay,
corn, soy beans, wheat with Austrian winter feed, strain and porridge [unint],
oats and barley.
These crops are used to feed the cattle and hogs which we direct market on a
contractual basis to organic butcher shops and restaurants and as our supply
permits - to individuals. Farming practices that we use at the farm include [unint]
or strip farming, cover crop and crop rotation. Organic farming [unint] the use
of herbicides, pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, products which have
contributed, shown their problems to the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Organic farming utilized the basic premise of agriculture. Feed the soil and let
the soil feed the plants. Excuse me, but I’ve had, like everybody else, had to
rewrite these things. Here are some ways I believe that the NRCS can assist
organic farming as well as conventional farming. And I think the number one item
would be education. If we don’t educate our young people starting in the
preschools and right on up through school - believe it or not in Shenandoah
County FFA has been taken out of a lot of the schools. Four H programs need to
be enhanced.
People need to understand that without agriculture we don’t exist. Without
agriculture the Bay would not exist. And if you don’t educate the children and
start at the grassroots then we’ve lost the battle. Just think about the
education. Children today recognize the golden arches as the number one symbol
in this country. Now if we can take that and make farming the number one
recognizable symbol in this country and the importance of farming, and I think
we’ve done a tremendous step in preserving farmland, we’ve done a tremendous
step in preserving the Bay.
I think we need technical assistance. Farmers need to have workshops and explain
the benefits of organic farming. We need to remove the stigmatism and the
misconceptions about organic farming. We are no longer a group of hippies living
in a commune. (LAUGHTER) We need to explain the farming techniques associated
with organic farming, strip farming, weed control, soil preservation, crop
rotation and crop production, thoughtful crop operations in lieu of farms and
concentrate on one crop.
We need diversity in our farmlands. We need to explain to farmers about the
three year transitional period from conventional agriculture to organic
agriculture. We need to explain to them that yes they can do it. Yes, you can
farm organically for a profit. One great benefit to organic farming is the
farmer gets to set his price and negotiate his price with the restaurants, the
butcher shops based on his input costs. How many conventional farmers get to
negotiate the price that they receive for their product? Not very many; they
take their cattle to the stockyard. Two bidders determine the value of that cow.
They take their crop to the grain elevator. That grain elevator determines what
they’re paid for that grain. But if you can negotiate your price you have a lot
better chance of becoming profitable.
Cost sharing. It’s very expensive to be certified organic. It costs me for the
272 acres about $750 a year to be certified. We have to pay all the expenses
associated with certification. We pay the inspector. We pay all these expenses
for that inspector to get to our farm. We need cost share to help with the
covered feed areas. All of our animals on our farm are encouraged to come into
barns where we feed them under cover, because we need the fertilizer that these
animals generate to turn into compost.
We need to teach farmers that yes they can compost. It turns organic matter that
your soil needs. And there’s equipment that could be cost shared like compost
turners and things to make life a whole lot easier and quicker on the farm.
Right now we’re using loaders to turn our compost.
There are so many things I’d like to go on, but in conclusion certified organic
farming is not for everyone, nor is it the silver bullet that will cure all the
ails of the Chesapeake Bay. I can, however, see many benefits that will be
derived from the promotion of certified organic farming in principles and
practices. In this respect I strongly suggest that existing program changes
occur that monetarily compensate present and future certified organic farming
operations. Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE)
Doug McKalip: Jim Baird with AFT and then two Nottingham’s on the registry. We
have the Association of Potato and Vegetable Growers, that’s Butch Nottingham
and the second one, I apologize, I cannot read the first name, but representing
ESW. So please be cued up for a Mr. Baird.
MS: Thanks very much. Jim Baird, the American Farmland Trust. I’m a Mid Atlantic
States Director. I commend you and I thank you for this listening session. I
believe from our … we have the distinction of being the only listening session
in the country in the Farm Bill. And I’m glad to see the turnout that’s here. So
I really appreciate it. Again, like everyone else I’m flip flopping, an awful
lot of congruence in what people are saying.
I guess one of the things that I have a little bit of a different vantage point
like some people here because I have a regional eye; I spend a lot of time going
between [unint] and I’m in Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland and I’m in
Delaware as well. I think one of the things that impresses me most is the level
of dialogue, the level of partnership and although I don’t always agree on
everything all the time, across states, across organizations, things like that,
there is an awful lot to build on here in terms of the things we do agree on.
And I would recommend that this program do its utmost to use that resource.
One of the things I think the guiding principle here, this is a special program.
It needs to be treated as a special program. The things that really make it
special are some that have been mentioned already. First of all, this is
additional funding. We’ve got unprecedented levels of conservation funding in
the overall Title Two conservation title. That money is there. This is for, to
do special work above the norm.
We really believe that NRCS should develop a notice of funding availability. The
rules are there. You could get the process done quickly and efficiently by
issuing a NOFA. We do feel that targeting is important geographically, certainly
in the sub watershed level. And also in terms of practices we do feel that the
state conservationists with the help of their committees could decide for each
state a fairly limited number of practices to be focused on, really they should
take the direction on cost effectiveness.
I think this is the key. $188 million is great. It’s still not a lot of money.
It needs to be very cost effective in working in the places and with the
practices that are going to get the most attainment of the Chesapeake Bay goal
that we can. Various people have mentioned reports about technical assistance. I
think also marketing and outreach; I was interested in the comments from
Virginia about really innovative ways of marketing.
I guess what I think is most important is we need to be thinking about scaling
up here. Technical assistance is very important, but what we really need is to
think about how do we go to the thousands level and tens of thousands of acres
of farmers and be planning that from the beginning. It’s one thing to think
about technical assistance about how we’re going to do each visit and how we’re
going to get each farmer in the door, but really how are we going to pull this
thing together and make large scale impact.
And that I would come back to the idea of partnerships. In terms of technical
assistance there needs to be special attention paid. I would really encourage,
AFT would really encourage the state conservationists, the technical committees
to submit written plans to the Chief about how they’re going to enhance these
endeavors, technical assistance, marketing, and to use innovative methods. And I
think that would come back to my theme of partnership.
The Chesapeake Bay region has got to be one of the most blessed areas of the
world in terms of expertise, in terms of people who do get the fundamentals,
both citizens and organizations and elected officials. Let’s use those
partnerships. So let’s get the technical assistance out on the ground with
cooperative agreements with organizations with certainly more NRCS staff
leveraging what we can. Thanks very much.
MS: Thank you.
MS: My name is Butch Nottingham and I represent the Association of Potato and
Vegetable Growers, an organization that represents about 80 percent of the
vegetables in the state of Virginia. Our Board of Directors would like to voice
our strong support for continued and increased funding around more resources
under the EQIP program. Our two counties, the south tip of Delmarva Peninsula,
produce 80 percent of the state’s vegetable crops. This production relies on
irrigation from ground well resources; their designated sole source of [unint].
In recent years we have seen funding to enlarge surface water storage in lieu of
pumping from the area’s [unint] and upgrading the efficiency on existing
irrigation delivery systems. We feel that the funding projects represent only
the initial interest in those types of conservation efforts. We also support
efforts to target projects to local needs that are specific. Therefore, we are
hoping to see expanded programs to invest this critical resource concern.
We would further like to participate in future discussions as specific program
criteria is reviewed and updated for successful implementation. We’ll submit a
letter with more details, but we certainly appreciate the opportunity to address
you folks and appreciate your perspective.
MS: Thank you very much.
MS: I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here to talk to you today. Can
you hear me?
MS: Yes, sir.
MS: I’m Addison Nottingham. I’m a farmer on the Eastern Shore Virginia and I
also work on the Eastern Shore Soil and [unint] Conservation District. One thing
that I think would be important is to maintain the partnership between the Soil
and Water District and the NRCS. There’s always been a strong bond between those
two organizations. And I think NRCS benefits from the expertise and support of
the Soil and Water District.
And it’s been, land owners like to deal with folks on a local level, people that
they know and by having a consistent relationship between the two organizations
it makes it a lot easier for our farmer to come in and sit down and talk to a
conservationist about what his plans are or to go out on his farm and make farm
visits. And we all feel very comfortable with you being there.
Virginia has a large percentage of its agricultural land in the Chesapeake Bay
watershed and it’s important that we get the funds in accordance to what area
that we serve. As long as it’s done fairly between all the different NRCS
regions in the partnership states it works fine. And you’ve done a good job so
far. The NRCS staff need to have enough staff at the time to implement all this
new money, all these new programs, program money that’s going to come in.
In a lot of cases they are short of staff already. And the funding has been
probably a little less than what they really need in order to get the job done.
And I’ll encourage you all to look at that at the staff and funding levels for
them. It’s also the fact that when you don’t have enough staff a farmer comes in
or a landowner comes in to have something done to participate in a program and
it can’t be done in a timely manner.
A lot of times we lose those folks; they go out and do something different on
their own and sometimes they just don’t know the best way to go about doing it.
So NRCS certainly has good training and good people to help lead in that process
of working with growers. They just need more people to do it. As I say long term
relationship with landowners, farmers is a great thing to have. You need to have
people in place. All conservation is local. And we need to remember that. We
need to treat all conservation as local - local priorities. And that’s about all
I got to say. And I thank you.
MS: Thank you.
Doug McKalip: Will Bob Summers from the Maryland Department of Environment come
forward, followed by Tom Simpson with the Water Stewardship Incorporated. And
then George Wolff from the Pennsylvania Grange. I know George is the very first
person to come in this morning and George if you could be on deck for us as
well. So Bob Summers, Maryland Department of Environment, Tom Simpson, Water
Stewardship Incorporated.
MS: Thank you. I am Tom Simpson and for my friends in the room and friends on
the panel, yes, I’m with Water Stewardship Incorporated for two weeks now, I’m
no longer with the University of Maryland. We are a new non-profit that is
working some major food system corporations to look at opportunities to
incorporate water stewardship throughout the food system. I’ll explain more as I
move along.
But first I want to thank you for your quick hard work to get all of the Farm
Bill implemented so rapidly, but specifically the work that you’re doing here on
the Chesapeake Bay effort and given the task that you’re facing thanks so much
for taking time to come and listen. I support what many said in front of me that
we do have a good delivery system in place and I think we need to continue that
delivery system. I think we need to supplement that delivery system. And I’m
going to talk some about that.
I do think that much of the new funding and the funding since it’s a Bay
watershed was to provide us opportunities for innovation and to try new
approaches that can set us up for the expansion of conservation that we all know
we’ll be facing not only in the Bay perhaps as our model or pilot but throughout
the Mississippi River basin as well. What our non-profit will be doing is
working with food system corporations, our two current public partners are Cisco
and General Mills.
We anticipate announcing another three to five within the next month. We are
beginning to meet with large suppliers such as Tyson’s and Purdue. And we also
are scheduling meetings with ag organizations, and for my friends in the
audience we’re starting in Virginia because Governor Kaine is very interested in
this and he is the Bay ag champion. So though I live in Maryland I’m a Virginia
native and we are heading south to start our work working with the folks there.
We will serve by third party professionals to do assessments of farm operations
at the farmer’s discretion. Is the farmer joining the program? But if they grow
for certain suppliers they will be encouraged to participate. These assessments
will set a baseline of conservation which we anticipate being basic nutrient
management, basic erosion control and basic animal waste management.
The certified professional will then work cooperatively with the farmer to
develop a five to seven year continuous improvement plan that allows for slow
incremental improvement. It’s hard to jump from where you are over a high bar,
but if we could each take a step then we can move forward a little bit at a
time. And so our approach is on a continuous improvement program. The reason I’m
here to talk is not just to tell you about what we’re going to be doing but to
say that we hope that the farmers who participate in our program will have
access to cost share funding through this program.
We hope where our continuous improvement plans constitute the equivalent of
contents of nutrient management plan that they would be eligible for incentives
that are offered frequently, I know that in Maryland for a [unint] to implement
a CNMP. And we hope that as we grow and improve ourselves that indeed you would
look to provide some priority for farmers interested in signing up for one of
our continuous improvement plans.
One thing I failed to mention earlier because I know it’s a Chesapeake Bay
session, but with the Chief here I wanted to point out that we do have pilot
programs that we’ll start in Northwest Arkansas and South Central Minnesota in
the valley of the Jolly Green Giant in case you’re wondering with General Mills.
We really appreciate you coming to listen and we appreciate this opportunity. I
would like to continue to work with you. I’m talking with your state
conservationists, I’ve talked with Dick as we develop our program so that we can
take what I’m terming a market driven program and let it be one tool to help us
expand our conservation efforts. Thank you.
MS: George Wolff, Pennsylvania State Grange, and then followed by Bob Thomas,
Pennsylvania Game Commission and Diane Kearns, Fruit Hill Orchard.
MS: I’m George Wolff here today representing the Pennsylvania State Grange.
First of all I want to thank Congress for passing the 2008 Farm Bill and
including the opportunity and funding for using the Chesapeake Bay area as a
pilot program to explore the most beneficial and cost effective methods of
improving waters of the Bay and tributaries and rivers going into the Bay.
Pennsylvania State Grange has been on the forefront of conservation [unint] and
mining issues for many, many years. We’ve consistently worked with the key
departments of agriculture, NRCS, environment protection agencies, state
conservation commissions and all of our companion farm organizations to promote
new techniques and opportunities to improve soil and water conservation and
reduce the loss of nutrients from our land.
We feel that it’s important to preserve the land. And it’s bloody well important
to preserve the farmer - and the economics are the thing that do that. We
therefore want to thank you for the opportunity to be here before you today and
present to you some thoughts. First, it’s vitally important to keep cover on the
land, thus reducing soil erosion and at the same time holding, stabilizing the
nutrients in the soil, reducing [unint] and loss due to water solubility.
We believe that there is a great need to fund the development of conservation
and nutrient management plans for land owners. We remind you that conservation
districts have the confidence of land owners but need extra staffing and their
efforts combined with private contractors also need funding are the developers
of the soil and nutrient management plans. This also requires funding to help
the land owner install the practices that are recommended.
We believe that soil, feed and manure tests are an absolute necessity since soil
tests are the basis of correct application of nutrients for the growing crop.
Feed tests should be the basis for balanced nutritional feeding programs for the
animals. And manure tests tell the nutrients that are actually in the manure.
All three interrelate with one another and therefore we believe these tests
should be required on a regular well thought out interval and that funding
should be available for producers to help cover this expense.
Manure is not a well balanced source of nutrients and when the phosphorus level
in the soil is already high, manure likely should not be applied. Therefore
there needs to be funding to help the producer purchase nitrogen that would not
now be available from the manure and also needs to be funding to help the [unint]
of the manure in other fashions, which would not be allowed as the soil
amendment in the future.
It’s frankly amazing how many farmers today do not use soil tests or forage
tests, therefore they have no compass telling them where they are or where
they’re going. New techniques and practices should be required. One of these
practices is precision farming, which utilizes yield monitors on the harvesting
equipment which indicate where their low yield levels are in the field which
will require special soil tests and then the use of the computerized fertilizer
spreading equipment that will be able to apply the nitrogen, phosphorous and pot
ash at varying levels in different parts of the field as indicated from those
soil tests.
This would reduce the loss of nutrients because they won’t be applying extra
nutrients where they’re not needed and will apply those where they’re short. The
techniques reduce the loss of nutrients and balances the nutrients across the
field and also increases yields and hopefully profitability.
Agriculture’s greatly reduced soil loss due to the increased use of no till and
generally improve conservation practices. However, new knowledge has recently
been uncovered indicating the movement of legacy sediment trapped behind
abandoned mill ponds, which generations ago provided the energy for saw mills,
feed and flour mills and wool mills. And it’s suspected to be a large and direct
contributor of sediment to the Bay along with the nutrients attached to that
sediment.
We believe that further investigation and effort to manage this previously
unknown source of contaminates should be investigated and efforts to manage
those contributions be established and funded. The USDA, the USGS report in the
past indicated that they thought that as much as 80 percent of the sediment to
the Bay was coming from legacy sediment. So we can put a lot of practices back
on the land and still not achieve that much.
Thank you again on behalf of the Pennsylvania State Grange for allowing us to
voice our concerns and needs. As I have stated, they’re funding for no till and
cover crops, funding and requiring soil manure tests, funding the use of
precision agriculture and funding should also be available to purchase nitrogen
and pot ash needed to balance soil needs.
Funding should be also provided to dispose of excess manure and handling. And
funding should be provided to handling and stabilizing legacy sediment. In the
interest of time we did not go into depth on these, but we’d be prepared to do
so if you’d like in the future.
MS: Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE)
MS: My name is Bob Thomas. I’m a Farm Bill Outreach Coordinator for the
Pennsylvania Game Commission. I’d like to talk about the enhancement of the
restoration habitat portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed program. We would
like to ask that the state wildlife and fishery agencies are involved in the
crafting and planning [unint] for the state technical committee.
We also recommend that the [unint] best management practices reflect sound
stewardship of soil, water and wildlife habitats and that the Chesapeake Bay
watershed program will have the ability to benefit the species of conservation
concerned in the Chesapeake Bay counties that identify the state wildlife action
plan. And these BMPs will prioritize native cool and warm season grasses and
native vegetative buffers where appropriate.
And finally I’d like to recommend that you develop incentives that will increase
the likelihood of success in restoring wildlife habitat to the Chesapeake Bay
drainage [ph].
FS: Hi, my name is Diane Kearns and I’m with the Fruit Hill Orchard which is
about a 3,000 acre, mostly apple operation in the Winchester/Frederick County,
Virginia area. I’m sort of [unint] generation farmer, all on the same land and
really view ourselves as stewards of the land; we’re just here using it for a
bit. And from that point of view that leads me to look to the big picture of a
long term approach to these kinds of things.
The goal that we had here is huge; I mean, it’s lofty, it’s very complex as far
as getting there. And one of the things I think is really important as we take
on something that big is communication. So I really applaud this session here
today, where you’re listening to folks like me that come to give you input. But
I think it’s very important too that all up and down the ladder, that lines of
communication stay very open, from the field man all the way up to the top. And
it would all be affiliated organizations that you’re hearing from too. It’s
super important to have that happen.
Another thing I feel is very important is monitoring. My background, I have a
science education background. And in that I was taught that basically good
science methodology, you get a hypothesis, experiment and results and the result
go to back to your hypothesis. So it’s really important to have some level of
meaningful and realistic monitoring to these programs that you have so you can
understand what you’re doing. I realize how difficult that can be given cost
constraints, but that’s important, that’s part of good methodology.
And then some observations that I had from the apple grower side of things is
staffing. The NRCS staff is great in this area. They’re doing a super job, but
there’s just not enough of them. I mean, I feel like there’s probably programs
out there, BMPs, that we might be able to utilize but we’re just not aware of,
because we’re too busy making a living to do all the research on that, you know,
they’re too busy doing the other things that they’re doing. So I think staffing
and technical support is very important to implement the good programs that you
have there.
Another thing that is an observation that happened to us about four or five
years ago, we took some trees out of the ground because the apple industry is
not quite as economically fruitful as it has been in the past and as a result we
had some ground we were trying to establish whether to put some [unint] on it.
Well, the question came up what’s the heavy metal content of this stuff? And for
whatever reason we found it really difficult to decide, we couldn’t figure that
out. So to a degree we were making a decision in a vacuum on that one. And I
think that we probably could have done better on that but just didn’t quite know
where to turn to or how to make that happen.
Another thing that I’m involved in is conservation easements. Our county has a
local authority which I’m part of and one of the things that came to my mind
again when I began thinking about this I have not heard too much talk about
laying (unint) easements that are applicable to like nutrient management
programs and things like that. So I’m wondering if there couldn’t be some way of
strengthening that or at least making it aware to more people that that kind of
stuff could be written into the deed perhaps. [unint].
And I guess to just sort of conclude I’d like to say that as you’re going to
this lofty goal, I really feel like you would have to have a holistic approach
on the whole thing. The approach needs to be flexible on a local level because
it is so big. You’re going to have that flexibility to move around a bit. It’s
also going to have to be sustainable. But most of all I really think it’s super
important that you make as many folks as possible aware of what those issues,
what the issues are and then at the same time the programs that you have in
place you have to introduce them to that, because I honestly believe that a lot
of folks want to do something but they’re just not quite sure what to do. Thank
you very much for listening. (APPLAUSE)
Doug McKalip: Can we get Dean Cumbia with the Virginia Department of Forestry to
please come forward and after Dean will be Bill Angstadt.
MS: Thanks very much for your attention and as we get toward to close your
attention and your patience. I’m Dean Cumbia, I’m the Director of Forest
Management with the Virginia Department of Forestry in Charlottesville. Virginia
as well as the other Bay states have rich and bountiful forest resources. In
fact, over 60 percent of Virginia is forest, with 16 million acres, a little
more than that. The majority of it is owned by private landowners, several
hundred thousand landowners, some of them are small, many are farmers as well or
are associated with farming operations.
These forests provide multiple benefits to the landowners as well as to society
in general. These include traditional, which include the production of forest
products, but as we are well aware forests are one of our best conservers of
water, as well as producers of clean air. Now we are very interested in storing
carbon as well as using forests for biomass and energy production.
One of those critical issues of Virginia’s forestry is conserving the forest
land base of Virginia. In Virginia we lose approximately 30,000 acres each year
of our forest land to other uses that are permanently diverted. Sustaining the
benefits from forests is dependent upon a stable forest land base. Private
landowners face increasing competition for their land from other usage. And it’s
very important for these forests as well as farms to remain viable, particularly
from an economic standpoint.
The Farm Bill provides incentives for long term management, both for forests and
for farms. It’s important to utilize the Farm Bill programs to conserve and to
enhance working forests. Specifically in Virginia we’re privileged to have good
working relationships that have developed over the years with our state and
local NRCS, FSA, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, the Virginia farmer and
conservationist, and recreation as well. We’ve all found that by working
cooperatively we can accomplish effective conservation.
Specifically in this Farm Bill items that are important for forest and
landowners include the EQIP program, and this Farm Bill recognizes the
importance of forests for conservation and for production, CREP and CRP, which
have been and continue to be very effective in protecting water quality and
providing many other benefits, and additionally the inclusion of forest in some
of the land conservation programs, specifically the Farm Land Protection program
and some of the other programs.
In summary, [unint] provides many benefits and provide many of the answers to
protecting the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Private forest landowners are the
key. Forest management keeping these lands productive is essential. Thank you
and appreciate you’re listening.
MS: Bill Angstadt, Delaware Maryland Agri Business Association, the DMAA or the
business [unint] in Maryland and Delaware that partner with the farmers to
execute fuel specific crop management for a bountiful and safe food supply. So
I’m a business person. I thought the way we were going we were just going to
hear from government all morning. There’s another perspective here.
One of the things I want to point out is state technical committees. State
technical committees in Maryland and Delaware were the true foundation for our
success in Maryland and Delaware. And one of the reasons is it’s not just
government voices being heard. It’s not just the NRCS but the state conservation
districts, the Department of Ag, there are state agencies, there are commodity
groups, there’s farmers, there’s certified crop advisors, there’s ag business.
So it’s the one place in NRCS that the locally driven conservation is open, is
transparent, collaborations are built, where consensus can be achieved. So I
would urge you to keep the state technical committees as the focal point for
this new Chesapeake Bay watershed money.
It was very educational today. Ann Swanson talked about we need quick solutions;
we need this as additional funding. Senator Cardin’s staff talked about the
purpose of Congress. Congress didn’t appropriate this money to be, if Congress
would have wanted this money to be in an operations account it would have put it
there. If they would have wanted it to be block grants to states they would have
put it there.
If they wanted this to be more money for EQIP and CSP they would put it there.
They didn’t put it there. We have a chance to take a different approach. And I
hear so many voices here today saying everything’s fine, let’s stay on course,
let’s just use this money to do what we’re already doing.
I have a very different view point, because even though NRCS and the soil
conservation districts have wonderful tools, they’re not the only tools in the
toolbox. There’s a whole array of precision agriculture tools, of tools on
increasing yields, on increasing land intensification to get higher yields on
good farm land and keep the fragile land in conservation practices instead of
plowing it up.
So I would suggest, Dick, that maybe we should say take five million dollars and
allocate each state to have a state technical committee advise the state cons on
if we give you five million dollars in this new program - how are you going to
use it? And let the state technical committee come up with those solutions to
real problems that are on the ground today, so equity in targeting.
For example, we talked to, in the Maryland Governor’s pesticide advisory, Dr.
Clifford Mitchell with Public Health about intervention, identifying
micro-ecologies that have a problem and let’s intervene with solutions. So this
kind of surgical strikes the state technical committees have the ability to do.
And to give you an example, two weeks ago the state technical committees of
Maryland and Delaware and the Equip subcommittee met jointly, both staff,
university, extension, CCAs, agri business, commodity groups, unprecedented.
And we used EPA, Chesapeake Bay offices, priority watersheds to look at what are
the real problems in which 12 digit HUC watershed codes, okay? And is it
phosphorus, is it nitrogen, is it sediment? And how do we now surgically strike
these issues and intervene?
Thirdly, one of the tools in our toolbox as I say is yield, crop production. If
a farmer can’t make money, conservation is irrelevant. It’s not sustainable. So
the only conservation, particularly annual conservation that can long-term
sustain profits for the farmer, a farmer is going to keep doing.
So in looking at total systems, for example, in the technical note from
Precision Ag that came in last year, from Agronomy, whole systems, not
individual, not do this barrier, do this, but the entire system of a farm has to
be looked at. Prevention of nutrients is much more cost effective than
mitigation of nutrients. If you don’t put on excess nutrients to begin with, you
don’t have to stop them from getting to the Bay.
And so that’s a tool again on the ag business side, from the crop consultant
side of prevention of nutrients that really soil conservation districts don’t
have that tool in their toolbox. And to give you one final example is the
Conservation Innovation Grant. That program has not done well aligning with the
state technical committees. There’s no state technical committee review, there’s
no technical review by NRCS staff at the state level, no sign off by the state
con.
And so much of those dollars are sent in directions that are not aligned with
the priorities of state technical committees at all. So I would hope that you
don’t take these funds and put them into that kind of misalignment outside the
state technical committees. So thank you very much.
Doug McKalip: By my count we have six additional speakers, a few of you have
asked to be added, so we’ve added you and a couple have been taken off since
they have views that have been expressed by other speakers. But we have six
additional. Dale Gardner of Virginia State Dairymen, if you can please come
forward; Larry Kehl, Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts and then
Dick Marzolf with the Lord Fairfax Soil and Water Conservation District in
Virginia.
MS: Good afternoon. Dale Gardner, Virginia State Dairyman’s Association. I
represent all the dairy farmers in the state of Virginia, about 60 percent are
at or around the Chesapeake Bay watershed. One of the bright spots we felt with
the Farm Bill was conservation money that was in the Farm Bill. Virginia, unlike
a lot of the small, a lot of the Bay states you’re not going to get a lot of
money from the subsidy programs, monitoring programs. So we look at conservation
money as an opportunity.
And I think we need to promote conservation as an opportunity not just a cost.
And the gentleman before me talked about it doesn’t make sense for a farmer
economically, he’s not going to implement these practices, so we really need to
focus on the economics of conservation because if a farmer knows that it will
work for him economically you won’t have to beg him, he’ll do it.
Several years ago - you don’t have to go back too many - you had to really talk
to farmers about doing conservation. You don’t have to talk to them about it;
they know conservation is a good thing. It’s how they go about doing it, how do
they have the money to do it. We need a few things. First of all, in Virginia we
need our fair share. We felt for a number of years that we haven’t always gotten
the amount of money that we should in relation to the concentration of animal
numbers and nutrients that we have, particularly in the Shenandoah.
We need greater flexibility for state programs and flexibility for states to
implement these programs. For the greatest and I agree with the gentleman right
before me, I think I’m a strong believer in a total systems approach. Individual
BMPs are good and they’re beneficial, but I think to get the greatest benefits
from the resources that we’re spending we need to look at a total systems
approach.
But in order to do that we have got to have more technical assistance. And we’ve
heard this time and time and time again today. There are a lot of things hanging
out there that farmers know about, a lot of different programs, but quite
frankly I think a lot of them are confused. And we all know what happens when
people get confused, oftentimes they don’t do anything. So that technical
assistance is very important.
If I have a chance I know in Virginia we’re making a strong push for stream
fencing and nutrient management plans. In order to get buy in for that you
really need to look at your rulemaking and see if there can’t be more
flexibility in those setbacks for stream fencing. We have people that will not
enter a federal program but they’ll do poly wire ten feet from the stream, which
shows that they’ll do it, but the 35 foot or 100 foot or whatever it is is not
practical in a lot of cases.
We need to simplify the farm management programs. The simpler you can make them
the more useful they’ll be to the farmer, the more they’ll put them into
practice. Finally, I would suggest that as we get into this whole carbon
greenhouse emissions sector we know that by reducing certain emissions we can
also improve water quality. And I think this is particularly the case with gases
such as methane.
We look at this as probably our opportunity in the carbon urban market. So I
would suggest maybe take a look at some of these, whether it’s mirrored in
creating some programs having to do with emissions, particularly methane and
could be beneficial to the farmers down the road, carbon as well as improving
the quality. Thank you very much.
MS: Thank you.
Doug McKalip: Is Larry Kehl still here from the Pennsylvania Association?
MS: Is it still morning or afternoon?
MS: It’s afternoon.
MS: Thanks. Good afternoon. As you can see my prepared statement is not up to
date already. My name is Larry Kehl. I’m President of the Pennsylvania State
Association of Conservation Districts. And the Pennsylvania Association of
Conservation Districts represents all 66 districts of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. Most of my stuff in my prepared statement was already discussed,
so I’m just going to go off the wall.
I was with the Conservation District about 15 years now, no, 18 years roughly.
You got to understand I live between two country clubs, okay? I farm a little
bit differently than most people. I make a lot of hay. My neighbors drive
Mercedes, Jaguars, stuff like that. It’s not a regular neighborhood, but I
learned to adjust, yeah, a little different.
I make more hay in an hour than my dad used to make in a whole year with my
equipment. So I changed. And this is something we have to do, we have to change.
I know Craig there - our conservationist from the state I think he’s very aware
of my thoughts here, but the conservation districts are here to help you.
And on the money issue that $188 million or $186 million, it’s not going to go
too far. We all know that. So we have to know how we can do the best with what
we have. About two years ago I believe it was, I was with the state
conservationist, Dennis Wolff, our Secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of
Agriculture. We were on a boat on the Chesapeake.
And that was very eye opening; you know how can we get that cleaned up? And you
have to understand this is everybody and everything. You know if Virginia,
Maryland gets all this money they should be able to do it, but they can’t. it’s
only half the land mass. So you have to decide how you’re going to handle these
programs there. And that’s going to be very interesting.
But then again I must say the issue is we have to have clean water coming down
our streams. That water should be clean before it gets to our farms and after it
gets to our farms. Like I said I’m a full time farmer. I do all this other stuff
part time, volunteer, whatever you can do. But we are here to help you as a
state conservation district. Thank you.
MS: thank you.
MS: Dick Marzolf and then we’re going to have Sally Claggett representing
forestry.
MS: My name is Dick Marzolf. I’m a first year director from the Lord Fairfax
Soil and Water Conservation District Board in the Shenandoah Valley. On this
short notice I cannot claim to advise the NRCS on the perspective of the
district, but what I’m about to say is based on my experience, the basic science
and water resources policy, a couple of disclaimers. These ideas are not new but
I offer them to underline my support for others who have said the same thing
and, to protect the board that I work with, my colleagues, I must say that my
ideas do not represent unanimous consent, although I have had some support.
Today we’re focused on the control of eutrophication in the Bay by using best
management practices in the drainage basin to control non-point sources of
excess nutrients. However, there is a mismatch. Recent claims of progress, and
you’ve heard some of them this morning, intriguing non-point source nutrient
loading from tributary watersheds are encouraging.
These claims however are not matched by improvement in the eutrophic conditions
in the Bay and some deadlines are not being met. This is the result of work by
geographic kinds of conservation in the Bay itself. This is a frustrating and
expensive disconnect. I offer two ideas that would help the NRCS guide and
evaluate the use of cost sharing BMPs.
First, with monitoring document the geographic distribution of the highest
nutrient loading sources in the Bay in Washington; those have been called hot
spots by others. Methods and some results about this are known. For example, the
Sparrow model has been mentioned a time or two. That’s a statistical model that
incorporates spatial data.
The second idea is to support a program to evaluate the performance of BMPs put
in place to reduce nutrient loading. This is a call for admitted measurement of
geochemical parameters to help guide confidence in modeling efforts that are
using surrogate parameters. This requires nutrient and hydrologic measurements
and analysis to check existing estimates of loading. Now monitoring promises to
be expensive and it’s likely to cost too much to monitor all of the projects.
You might however oversee the design and conduct of sampling of projects; that
is, treat selective BMPs as manipulative experiments, thus monitoring becomes
data collection at the pace of expected change. Development of the use of remote
sensors or data loggers ought to be useful here and the technology is changing
very rapidly. This approach is compelled it seems to me by our incomplete
knowledge of the effectiveness of BMPs and the knowledge that improvement in the
Bay is limited.
You guys are tough. You can sit here through all of this. (LAUGHTER) Thank you.
MS: Thank you. (APPLAUSE)
FS: Hi. Am I the last person? Oh, okay, darn. Hi, Sally Claggett with the U.S.
Forest Service. I came to speak on behalf of forestry naturally and somewhat for
the forest community of the Chesapeake Bay. And mainly my point is I hope for
this extra funding for the Chesapeake and it will help us better integrate
forestry at all levels of the Farm Bill. I think the Chesapeake is well set up
to be an exemplary watershed program for the country in doing so.
We have many members or we had many members of the forestry community in the
audience. We got to hear from Dean Cumbia, I won’t repeat some of his comments,
but I think that this is a great opportunity. I will say again our forestry
community is strong. We have our forestry directive that was signed in December
by Mark Ray and all six states as well as the Commission, EPA and Washington,
D.C.
And in that directive, which I know Dick and Greg Derickson are very familiar
with, we are targeting a valuable forest for water quality. We’ve already done a
lot of this work. I think that the key point here, one example from the
directive I think this Farm Bill money could be useful for is to help us help
support our commitment, our collective commitment to improve system markets and
the ability to transact those ecosystem services including, especially with
multiple ecosystems that serve as benefits.
And it’s not just nutrient training, we’re talking about carbon, habitat and
many other products that our natural resources provide. I want to plug also for
greater accountability and [unint] the suite of environmental objectives that we
are pursuing here that again are additionality to the water quality emphasis.
And finally I’d like to say a few words about CREP. I hear that there’s a lot of
support here in this room today. And I am aware that the Bay is already a
priority for CRP in this Farm Bill, which is very exciting. I think Arlen you
mentioned this idea of a new CREP agreement. And I’m pretty excited about that.
We’ve been talking already with NRCS and FSA about some possibilities there.
Also about two weeks ago we had an international conference on repairing
ecosystems and got some great new energy generated around some of these ideas
and cost effective measures that are proven that will help, will make much more
sense as far as restoring stream [unint]. So I just would like to wrap up by
saying that we’re here to help you. We have a forestry work group. We are
already organized. We’re working closely with Dick and Craig and other NRCS
folks across the watershed. And this is a really exciting time. So thank you
very much.
MS: Thank you. (APPLAUSE)
Doug McKalip: There are three final names that I have on the list that I’ve been
given. I want to reiterate that you can submit written comments, fax, e-mail.
Dan Lawson, if you would stand up once more to identify yourself. Dan will be
collecting any written comments that folks have. And his contact information is
out at the registration table. You can pick up a sheet; you’ll have his address
and ways to get in contact with Dan.
But we have Karen Anderson from the Friends of the Shenandoah River, Leon
Ressler with Penn State Extension and Doug Parker with the Mid Atlantic Regional
Water Partnership. If I did not read your name and you believe that you were
marked down to give a presentation I’ll be in the back of the room, please see
me. And if we’ve made a mistake we’ll go over the list and check it twice.
Karen.
FS: Thank you very much for this opportunity. I’m here to remind the NRCS about
a resource that is available to them. One key to be able to promote
environmental stewardship to the use of BMPs that include [unint] buffers,
easements and fencing, one has to be able to demonstrate its measurable effect,
that the goal of reducing nutrient and sediment loading in the watershed is
accomplished. A way of doing this is with water quality monitoring, including
chemical, [unint] and [unint] assessments.
In the Shenandoah River watershed there is a cooperative volunteer water
monitoring program already in place to assist in this. The Friends of the
Shenandoah River and over 100 volunteers are dedicated to working cooperatively
with the community, other environmental organizations, industry, local and state
agencies and officials to improve the health of the Shenandoah River.
The Friends of the Shenandoah River operate in Virginia, a DEQ Tier Three
certified lab that provides analysis of the water samples collected by the
volunteers in the Shenandoah River watershed. This monitoring program is a local
resource that … I’m sorry, with volunteers that live in the communities we are
able provide and [unint] venues that offer opportunities to educate local
homeowners, farmers, industry and local government about watershed issues.
We are also able to rally local support to encourage and promote good
stewardship practices. When the decision is being made for the allocation of
available funds, please give consideration to the Friends, environmental
organizations, and their direct connections to the community and their strength.
Thank you very much.
MS: Good afternoon. I’m Leon Ressler, regional director of the Penn State
Extension for the Capital Region and South Central Pennsylvania, nine counties
there. Last week I called a couple of farmers in Lancaster County and invited
them to come with me today and they all pled pretty much work but a few of them
gave me comments to pass along.
I talked to Steve Roth [ph] who’s a nationally known no till innovator on his
vegetable farm and he really feels like cover crops are more important than even
no till and for him that’s quite a statement. And he would like to see us fund
the research for cover crops and thinks we ought to have a cover crop researcher
or specialist in Pennsylvania.
I talked to Jeff [unint], a swine producer and farms several hundred acres of
mill crops. And he feels that it’s really important to get more money for
conservation practices. He said he just installed a couple of terraces and
waterways and he was only able to do that because of the cost availability. So
he’s like to see more money pumped into EQIP for that. He feels that if you keep
the soil in place that will solve the phosphorus problem.
I asked him if he had any comments on the phosphorus issue. He said he does have
plans for the phosphorus issue, but nothing that’s diplomatic. (LAUGHTER) But he
did say that the phosphorous issue and solving it is the number one threat to
maintaining the viability of the farm, certainly in Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania. We are an animal based agriculture in Pennsylvania less so than
some of the areas.
But he also felt that in Pennsylvania we have some tax based programs for cost
sharing of no till equipment and so on, he thought that was kind of the thing we
ought to look at and maybe rolling into this program. So I’ll just add a few
segues, a couple of my thoughts. As I said Pennsylvania’s heavily animal
agriculture, and the phosphorous problem, particularly in Lancaster County is
starting to be a make or break issue in terms of maintaining the viability of
our farms there.
In the day of almost five dollars a gallon for diesel fuel, and almost a dollar
a pound to buy back your replacement nitrogen fertilizer it was a solution of
either get rid of the animals, which would collapse the system or put all the
manure and track it over the hill to somewhere else, really is not going to
work. We need to be funding some research to look at alternative cost effective
solutions for phosphorous such as removal and concentration of phosphorous
perhaps with [unint] using it for energy.
At the beginning of the day we talked about some discretionary funds in this
program. I understand there are policies on how money can be spent, but I think
one thing we need to think about is flexibility and if there is any way we can
within the policy fund some of these things like [unint] research or phosphorous
research which is a little different than simply paying for a practice.
I think we need to really think seriously about with the amount of money that’s
in this program looking at some of these other needs and finding a way to fund
them. If policies don’t allow maybe we need to take a look at rethinking some of
our policies and how they utilize some of this money. Thank you.
MS: Good afternoon. It’s an honor to be here today and be able to speak with you
all. I guess I’m batting clean up here at the bottom of the order. I’m happy to
be here today to talk with you. I didn’t know I was talking until about ten
minutes ago. I’m filling in for Kevin [unint] at the Chesapeake Research
Consortia. He had to go to another commitment.
My name’s Dan Parker. I represent the Mid Atlantic water program, a consortium
of nine universities, land grant universities in the Chesapeake Bay and Mid
Atlantic regions. We’re funded by USDA CSREES. My home base is the University of
Maryland, College Park. I’m an [unint] economics professor there as well.
We have submitted written comments already to the program so I won’t go over
those. I just wanted to make a couple of quick points. Senator Cardin’s staff
mentioned that the funds are here to help improve water quality and I think it’s
important that we keep our eye on that goal as we look at how we want to spend
this money and how we want to operate these programs.
Implementation and use of the funds that is going to involve real changes on
farmland and by farmers and land owners and hopefully those changes are going to
be producing outcomes. And as part of that then we would like to sort of, these
three Mid Atlantic water programs, the Chesapeake Research Consortia as well.
The scientific technical advisory committee for the Chesapeake Bay program has
also been involved in looking at this issue.
We’re interested in providing our support and saying that the [unint] evaluation
is critical to showing proper use of these funds but more importantly to
creating long term support for water quality improvement programs. And the
regional scientific community that we represent is ready and willing to support
and participate in the evaluation and monitoring of these water quality changes.
This can serve not only to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay but also
to help illuminate lessons learned from here for other basins throughout the
country. Thank you for your support.
Dick Coombe: This has certainly been a great day and we appreciate all the input
and the ideas and what I’d like to do is turn the mike over to my boss, Chief
Arlen Lancaster, and I appreciate my colleagues commenting here. I was also
impressed by the fact that you came from all different walks of life, from all
across the Bay. A few of the staff members said Dick we’ll be lucky if we have
50, but, wow, I never expected this much. Arlen, thank you for coming and if you
want to wrap up.
Chief Lancaster: Sure. I just want to again thank you all for your participation
today. I know it’s been a long morning for many folks. And I also recognize that
people traveled a great distance to come here. This is extremely helpful to us
as we look at those items that are discretionary in the statute, those things
that we have to make decisions on it’s critical to have this public input.
As somebody mentioned this is our first listening session related to the 2008
Farm Bill. And I think it is a tremendous way to kick off that public
participation as we work to develop how we’re going to carry out these programs
to make sure that they’re successful, not only in meeting the goals of the
statute, in meeting the water quality of the Bay, but also successful in meeting
the needs of the producers who ultimately are going to be the ones utilizing
these programs and those authorities.
So thank you very much for your time, for your patience. And again the record
will remain open and if you have individuals who may be interested in commenting
on how these programs should operate, please encourage them to submit them. And
we will continue to maintain this dialogue as we move through the rest of our
programs. So again thank you very much. (APPLAUSE)
*This informal transcript was developed from a digital audio
recording of the listening session and as such is conversational in tone. Some
remarks were unintelligible and are noted herein (“unint”). Other words and
names that were based on phonetic sound are labeled “ph,” and may not be spelled
correctly; any inaccuracies are unintentional.
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