Status of 1996 Farm Bill Rules and Notices -- The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) Proposed Rule is expected to be published in the Federal Register later this month. WHIP is budgeted for $50 million through 2002. Funding for the program will come from the Commodity Credit Corporation. The Conservation Farm Option issue papers are being reviewed at USDA. Published rules and notices can be viewed on the NRCS World Wide Web Homepage at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov.

National Food Security Act Manual -- The National Food Security Act Manual will be released the week of November 18.

Commodity Group Presentation -- Over a dozen key commodity groups were given a presentation on the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) by staff from the NRCS Conservation & Ecosystem Assistance Division and the Farm Service Agency, in Washington, DC, November 13. The commodity groups were taken through the step-by-step process a farmer, rancher, or landowner would follow when applying for an EQIP contract. November 25 is the final date comments will be accepted for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program Proposed Regulation.

LEGISLATIVE NEWS

Make-Up Of the 105th Congress -- There will be major changes in some of the committees and subcommittees which oversee NRCS. Committee assignments and leadership responsibilities will probably not be completed until mid-January. The NRCS Office of Legislative Affairs will prepare an assessment of the changes in congressional committee assignments at that time.

House. Not counting the 4 seats still undecided, 205 seats will be Democratic, 224 seats will be Republican, and two seats will be held by Independents. The Independent members are JoAnn Emerson (I-MO) and Bernard Sanders (I-VT).

Senate. The 105th Congress will see 15 new faces in the Senate next year, 8 of them Republicans, 6 Democrats and a newcomer from Oregon.

Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee and Subcommittee on Forestry, Conservation and Rural Revitalization. The next Senate Agriculture Committee will have to fill two seats on the minority side. Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Wayne Allard (R-CO) expressed an interest in any openings that may occur on the majority side of the committee.

Senate Appropriations and Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development and Related Agencies. The subcommittee will have one opening. The chairmanship of the subcommittee may change hands because members of a committee cannot be chairman of more than one subcommittee. Thad Cochran (R-MS) has expressed an interest in serving on the subcommittee, although Arlene Specter (R-PA) is next in line for the opening. Other potential candidates include Kit Bond (R-WA), current chairman of VA-HUD; Slade Gorton (R-WA), chairman of Interior; and Mitch McConnel (R-KY), chairman of Foreign Operations.

CONSTITUENCY AND PARTNERSHIP NEWS

Degree Program Underway at 1890's University -- This Fall, Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU), Tallahassee, FL, initiated its Biological and Agricultural Systems Engineering (BASE) Degree Program by enrolling 16 students for the Fall Semester of the 1996-97 academic year. The characteristics of this first class are: 11 African-American females, 3 African-American males, 2 White males for a total of 16 students. FAMU is a 4-year, 1890 Land Grant University with a predominantly African-American student body.

NRCS has historically been under-represented by women and minorities in all engineering fields. This program will provide an opportunity to recruit qualified individuals who are trained in engineering principles with emphasis in the biological and ecological sciences.

In 1991, FAMU and NRCS entered into a cooperative agreement to develop a program to attract minorities and women to the engineering work force. After determining that the program had merit, funds were provided by NRCS to hire a consultant to design the program, outline a curriculum, and submit the proposal to the Florida Board of Regents for approval. Once the BASE program gained approval, NRCS provided funds to employ a program director to implement the program.

Alabama Cooperative Watershed Project Underway -- Nearly 100 local citizens and representatives of local, State, and Federal government recently met to observe that the Northeast Yellow River Watershed project near Andalusia, AL, was successfully underway. Some of the partners present at the observance included NRCS, Farm Service Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S Army Corps of Engineers, and the State of Alabama Division of State Parks. The project is an excellent example of how local leaders and numerous agencies have formed a successful partnership and pooled their resources and expertise to address the local problem of increased pollution in streams caused by nutrients, bacteria, and sediment; and loss of water storage because of sediment collecting in the lake.

Kansas Wetlands and Riparian Alliance -- A unique partnership of individuals and groups including NRCS, Pheasants Forever, Farm Bureau, Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, and the Kansas Land Improvement Contractors Association has formed to work with farmers, landowners, and ranchers to improve wetlands, riparian areas, and wildlife. The 37 partners have elected officers and are putting together an action plan which sets priorities and identifies projects for the upcoming year. Spokespersons for the group are careful to point out that their goal is to educate people on what they can do to improve their wetland and riparian areas, not to regulate farmers, ranchers, and landowners.

IN THE FIELD

Germans Sign Letter of Intent to Develop Soil Memorandum of Understanding -- Steve Carpenter, NRCS State Soil Scientist in West Virginia, recently returned from a technical exchange trip to Germany. Steve was part of an NRCS team of soil scientists from around the country that included Sharon Waltman, Lincoln, NB, trip team leader; Ken Harward, Ft. Collins, CO; and Bruce Stoneman, Richmond, VA. The team provided a technical overview of the U.S. Soil Survey program to German soil scientists in five different German Federal States. The NRCS team traveled throughout Germany exchanging ideas with the German soil survey on soil mapping, map scale, database structures, and soil map digitizing. In his report, Steve pointed out that the German government takes its soil databases very seriously and is interested in all aspects of NRCS's National Soil Information System. The NRCS team and German officials signed a letter of intent to develop a Memorandum of Understanding for Technical Exchange On Map Scaling, Soil Databases, and Expert Systems for Soil Interpretation, between the German soil survey and NRCS.

Alabama Earth Team Projects Completed -- Ribbon-cuttings were recently held for three Earth Team Volunteer projects in Jefferson County, AL. These included a nature trail and outdoor classroom at West Jefferson School, a landscaping/recreation/nature trail at Mt. Olive Community Center, and a nature trail at Mt. Olive Middle School. These projects were accomplished by Earth Team Volunteers with the strong support of local people and the government.

UPCOMING EVENTS

A Different Sort of Holiday -- If you're looking to celebrate a new commitment to consuming less, you may be interested in celebrating the newly declared International Buy Nothing Day, November 29. The goal of International Buy Nothing Day is to get people thinking about how their spending and consumption habits impact the Earth's natural resources. Sponsors in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, and the United States are calling for participants in International Buy Nothing Day to make no purchases and use the time instead to create a plan to reduce their level of consumption.

December 5-7 -- Conference on Competing Interests in Water Resources, sponsored by the U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, Alexis Park Hotel, Las Vegas, NV. Call: 303-628-5430 or email: stephens@uscid.org.

January 14-15, 1997 -- Eastern Iowa Conservation Tillage Show, Five Seasons Center, Cedar Rapids, IA. Contact: Ed Andrews, 319-652-2337.

April 27-May 2, 1997 -- 21st Annual Conference of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, Little Rock, AR. Contact: Rod Emmer, 608-274-0123,

May 25-28, 1997 -- 8th Global Warming International Conference & Expo, New York, NY. Conference FAX Hotline: 630-910-1561.

July 23-26, 1997 -- The 52nd Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Conference; Interactions, Managing Ecosystems on a Watershed Basis; Toronto, Canada. Contact: Nancy Herselius, 515-289-2331, ext. 18. Conference information can also be found at: http://www.swcs.org/AnnCon.htm.

July 27-30, 1997 -- The 84th American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada. Call: 515-233-3202. Conference information can also be found at: http://www.aaea.org/Meetings.html.

QUOTE

"More and more as we come closer and closer in touch with nature and its teachings are we able to see the Divine and are therefore fitted to interpret correctly the various languages spoken by all forms of nature about us."

George Washington Carver (1864-1943)

NRCS This Week is issued weekly by the Office of Public Affairs, NRCS headquarters, Washington, D.C., and posted in the SCS:SCS shared folder on FTS2000Mail. Please send correspondence and material via FTS2000Mail to !A16SCSOPA and type "This Week" on the subject line or e-mail: fred.jacobs@usda.gov or mail to Editor, "NRCS This Week," NRCS, P.O. Box 2890, Washington, DC 20013 or fax to Editor, "NRCS This Week," 202-690-1221.

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