| |
Why a Watershed Approach is being Used
CSP has been continuously under some form of payment cap since January of
2003 (the first year Congressional appropriators funded CSP). The decision by
Congress to cap total expenditures for CSP at $6.037 billion (between FY-2005
and FY-2014) exemplifies the wisdom of the Administration’s watershed approach –
which can adapt to a constantly changing funding picture for CSP.
Watersheds are nature’s boundaries. They are a common sense way to group
together producers’ success on resource issues. They will reflect the
environmental progress we expect from CSP in ways we couldn’t expect from
working along county or state lines.
Everyone lives in a watershed and, using the rotation approach, within the next
eight years, every farmer and rancher will have an opportunity to participate in
the program. No qualifying producer will be left out.
By law, NRCS cannot incur technical assistance costs in excess of 15 percent of
the funds expended in that fiscal year for CSP. Given this modest service
funding, we must focus and limit the land and landowners that our
conservationists can serve at one time. Watersheds provide that focus.
A watershed rotation reduces the administrative burden on applicants while it
reduces the technical assistance costs associated with NRCS and its technical
service providers processing a large number of applications that cannot be
funded. Because everyone lives in a watershed, and because each year producers
in approximately one eighth of the nation’s 2,119 watersheds will be eligible
for the sign-up, everyone will have the opportunity to participate over the
eight-year period.
For producers in a selected watershed, this approach means better service when
applying. For producers not yet in a selected watershed, it means time to get
ready with access to other Farm Bill programs and access to technical service
from personnel unencumbered by CSP responsibilities. The CSP self-assessment
exercise will allow producers to see where they stand and allow for management
concerns to be addressed.
<< Conservation Security Program
| | |