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What the Next Golden Age of Conservation Means for Wild Turkeys
Remarks by Bruce I. Knight, Chief, Natural
Resources Conservation Service, at the National Wild Turkey Federation Annual
Convention and Sports Show
Nashville, TN
February 14, 2003
Thank you, and good morning. As a farmer and a sportsman, it is a pleasure for
me to be here today to talk about the conservation provisions of the farm bill
and what it means to wildlife groups, such as the National Wild Turkey
Federation.
Today, I would like to give you an overview of the new farm bill, talk a bit
about what USDA and its partners need to do to successfully implement the bill,
and, finally, suggest a few things the National Wild Turkey Federation and its
members, can do to get the most out of the conservation provisions of the new
farm bill.
The National Wild Turkey Federation and its members already are doing much to
conserve and improve wildlife habitat and other natural resources. The new farm
bill increases funding for conservation and opens up new opportunities to
improve habitat for wild turkeys and other animals. Whether you are a biologist,
State agency professional or farmer, the bill means more opportunities for you
to reach your conservation goals.
The farm bill provides a framework for addressing unique local concerns,
including habitat issues. In addition, the farm bill will help producers
implement voluntary solutions for complying with or even avoid being covered by
provisions of all kinds of environmental regulations. NRCS can provide
one-on-one technical assistance for reaching these goals.
FARM BILL PROGRAM RUN DOWN
The farm bill represents the largest investment in conservation on America’s
working lands in farm bill history. The farm bill will result in an increase of
$17.1 billion in conservation spending over ten years.
The farm bill announces our entry into what I call “the next golden age of
conservation.” It provides a great deal of flexibility for America’s farmers and
ranchers, to help them enhance the natural resources on their lands, while also
maintaining industry profitability. Most importantly, the new farm bill is
heavily focused on working lands conservation.
Funding increases in all programs offer more farmers and ranchers more options
for addressing their natural resource challenges.
The biggest single program in the farm bill is the Environmental Quality
Incentives Program. The farm bill provides an extra $5.5 billion for EQIP. This
fiscal year EQIP will have about $700 million. EQIP is a program with more
benefit for turkeys than may first meet the eye. The proposed rule is out for
EQIP with a 30-day comment period.
Other programs show similar increases.
The farm bill provides $360 million for the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program
over six years. That could mean $30 million for WHIP in FY 2003.
The new farm bill provides for several programs to protect working farmland and
ranchland, including the renamed Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program and the
new Grassland Reserve Program.
FPP will have nearly $600 million over six years, including about $100 million
for FY 2003. The Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program keeps land in
production, while easing the tax burden.
The Grassland Reserve Program will have a quarter of a billion dollars in
mandatory spending to enroll up to two million acres of grazing land. It remains
to be seen how much of that money will be available each year.
In addition, the Wetlands Reserve Program has significant increases in its
acreage cap. Secretary Veneman released $275 million in WRP funds this fall, and
we were able to enroll more than 200,000 acres.
The new Conservation Security Program will provide payments for producers who
have historically practiced good stewardship on their agricultural lands and
incentives to do more. We issued the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for
CSP earlier this week. You can see it on our web site. That comment period is
also 30 days.
OUR STRATEGIC PLAN
So, what have we, at USDA and our partners been doing to implement the farm
bill, and what do we need to do in the future to ensure its success? The farm
bill meant release of about $700 million for conservation programs late in the
last Federal fiscal year.
NRCS offices around the country dusted off the old applications, took in new
applications, assigned them priorities, ranked the applications, and, by the end
of the year, nearly the entire $700 million was committed. We funded more than
19,000 EQIP applications with $414 million in new farm bill money and more than
800 applications for WRP, with $274 million.
Getting all that money invested in such a short time is a tribute to the hard
work of NRCS staff and to the preparedness of NRCS field offices, as well as the
strong interest on the part of America’s farmers and ranchers.
Today, we not only have enough applications to invest the 2003 farm bill money
-- we are back in the position of having a backlog of applications. EQIP alone
now has a backlog of $1.4 billion nationwide. WRP has 2,800 pending
applications, amounting to 475,000 acres. FPP has more than $100 million in
pending offers for easements.
This backlog means that for farmers, NRCS professionals, and our partners hard
work lies ahead. Tough decisions will need to be made as to how to rank and
prioritize the applications.
IMPLEMENTING OUR CONSERVATION STRATEGY
There is more to implementing the farm bill than just accepting applications as
they come in the door. To be truly effective, we need to be more strategic in
three major areas: getting the word out – which includes making sure producers,
rural landowners, State agencies, and others have reasonable expectations of
what the farm bill can help you accomplish; making sure the applications we
approve meet local and national priorities; and leveraging Federal dollars to
get the most conservation done.
GETTING THE WORD OUT
The first thing we need to do is increase our effort to get the word out. We
have new tools and new resources, and we need to tell that story. The word is
getting out, but it has not reached everyone who needs to know. This meeting is
another way of letting more people know about the farm bill. And, I just met
with the Federation staff about exciting ways to get the word out.
It might be fair to say we have reached those who are well tuned in to our usual
– and even modern – ways of getting the word out. But, we have not done enough
to reach other audiences -– especially the traditionally underserved farmers and
ranchers, including minorities, women, beginning farmers, and part-time farmers.
The farm bill is designed to extend opportunities for every farmer and rancher
to reach his or her conservation goals. To make that potential a reality, we
have to reach out to every farmer and rancher.
FOCUSING ON CONSERVATION GOALS
The second thing we have to do is focus more on conservation goals and less on
programs. Our grand strategy is not to pile up a large number of applications.
Our strategy is to get as much good, priority-based conservation done on the
ground as we can. We must move beyond numbers of applications to consider how to
get the best and most conservation done. We need to look at how applications
relate to a producer’s overall conservation goals. And we need to look at how
applications relate to national and local conservation priorities, including
habitat.
The key to reaching individual and local conservation goals is to keep decisions
at the local level. That is why we are creating rules that are “lean and local”
to implement the new farm bill. The rules are simple and leave the decision
making to local officials. That is where the opportunity for your involvement to
make habitat improvement will be greatest.
GETTING MORE CONSERVATION DONE
The third thing we have to do is focus more on getting as much conservation done
as we can, as widely and as wisely as we can. The foundation of our effort is to
offer incentives to producers who practice conservation. Part of the idea of
incentives and cost share is to make it possible for producers to undertake
conservation practices that they could not normally afford to do. Another part
of the idea of incentives s to leverage tax dollars to get more conservation
done. This is where the opportunity for the National Wild Turkey Federation
comes to the forefront.
We need to look carefully at applications in a number of ways to be sure we are
getting the most for the taxpayer dollar.
We need to look at local farm and ranch communities to see how incentives and
cost shares operate. The same cost share may not be needed everywhere at all
times. The much bally-hooed 75 percent cost-share level authorized in the farm
bill will be a rarity, not the norm, as we tailor the level of cost-share to the
particular practice and what it achieves.
We need to look at other sources of funds to see how to leverage the Federal
dollar. The Federal government and the producers can get more conservation done
when the cost is shared several ways. The National Wild Turkey Federation will
be a key partner in improving habitat.
CONCLUSION
Before I conclude, let me suggest that both the National Wild Turkey Federation
and the State agencies look seriously at the opportunities to provide technical
services to our agency in delivering the farm bill. We can’t do it without your
help.
To summarize, let me say that we have had nine months to celebrate passage of
the new farm bill and the birth of “the new golden age of conservation.” We have
made a strong start toward implementing the new farm bill, with its tremendous
investment in conservation on working lands. But to be successful in the long
run, we need to be more strategic.
We need to make sure every farmer, rancher, and rural landowner knows about the
farm bill and has a chance to participate. We depend on the continued efforts of
organizations like the National Wild Turkey Federation to help get the word out.
We need to focus more on overall conservation goals and less on program
implementation. I mentioned that NRCS needs to focus on accepting applications
that meet local and national priorities, including water and soil conservation,
air quality, and habitat. Organizations like the National Wild Turkey Federation
can help spread the word on these priorities. But, beyond local and national
priorities, conservation activities on any given farm or ranch should meet the
conservation goals of the owner and operator.
One-on-one technical assistance from NRCS can help producers fine tune their
conservation goals and decide on the practices that are right for them, both
from a conservation standpoint and from the standpoint of economic return.
And finally, we need to get the most conservation done that we can for the
money. We need to use incentives properly, and we need to leverage the Federal
funding. Organizations like the National Wild Turkey Federation can help.
Your members have the passion and the energy to help landowners maintain and
improve habitat. I saw that last night at the banquet. And, since many of your
members are landowners, Your organization is in a position to know what private
landowners need to make habitat improvement projects work for them.
The new farm bill gives us the resources to work with new and existing partners
and the flexibility to take on new projects. The more partners we have, the more
conservation we can do. By working together to make the right choices, we can
make this new farm bill live up to its potential. And that should be good for
Wild Turkeys.
I look forward to working with all of you to make the next golden age of
conservation a reality.
Thank you.
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