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USDA-NRCS Seeks Comments on Farm Bill ProgramsContact: Reina O’Beck (530) 792-5692 DAVIS, Calif., March 3, 2005– The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is seeking comments from California landowners, agricultural organizations, environmental groups, commodity organizations, and others on the national priorities used to implement the 2002 Farm Bill. The final rule for NRCS's flagship conservation cost-share program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), "requires NRCS to periodically review and update the priorities utilizing input from the public and affected stakeholders to ensure the program continues to address the most important resource needs," says Dr. Helen Flach, Assistant Sate Conservationist for NRCS. "Updating the national priorities will help us to respond to emerging issues and prepare for the 2006 program year and for the next Farm Bill reauthorization in 2007." Public listening sessions will be held in each State in coordination with the State Technical Committee. NRCS is looking for a wide array of public and stakeholder input from these sessions. Feedback from agricultural organizations, environmental groups, commodity organizations, agencies, individuals and others is encouraged. In California, listening sessions will be held from 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. at the following locations:
The culmination of the State listening sessions will be a national public listening session scheduled for the spring of 2005. "These listening sessions are not exclusive to EQIP," adds Flach. "We also
invite comments on our other programs, such as the Farm and Ranchlands
Protection Program, Grassland Reserve Program, Wildlife Habitat Incentives
Program, Wetlands Reserve Program, and Conservation Technical Assistance
Program." NRCS will be providing updates on all Farm Bill program activities in
California as a part of the listening sessions. EQIP's national priorities, which NRCS uses to guide which producers will be selected for program funding, are:
The sessions will invite responses to the following questions:
A compilation of inputs from the States will be presented at the National Listening Session tentatively scheduled for this spring. Further details on the National Listening Session will be forthcoming. Written comments are due on March 18, 2005. Comments can e-mailed to reina.o_beck@ca.usda.gov or sent by U.S. mail to Reina O’beck, Public Affairs Assistant, USDA-NRCS, 430 G Street #4164, Davis, CA 95616. |
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