United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced today, August 6, 2009, that the department is set to begin the continuous enrollment period for the new Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) on August 10, 2009, and the sign-up will continue until the first cutoff period, which is scheduled for September 30, 2009.As the USDA news release points out, this program is different from the previous Conservation Security Program. The CSP program has supposedly been “revamped” to make the program and its benefits available and attractive to more agriculture and forestry producers. The Conservation Stewardship Program was authorized as part of the 2008 Food, Conservation, and Energy Act (2008 Farm Bill).
CSP is a voluntary program that is supposed to encourage producers to maintain existing conservation practices as well as develop new practices. There is a self-screening process whereby a producer can determine whether or not their current or proposed activities would are suitable for the new program or their operation. Following screening, the producer’s practices are entered into a conservation measurement tool (CMT) to estimate the level of “environmental performance” of a particular conservation activity. The CMT is used to rank applications and then individual states can establish “ranking pools” to rank applications that meet the state’s desired conservation priorities.
Deputy Secretary Merrigan made the following statement in the news release:
This program will help the Nation's agricultural and forestry producers reach
greater levels of conservation performance, which will help protect our land and
water . . . The conservation benefits derived from maintaining and enhancing
natural resources will improve the quality of soil and water, assist in
addressing global climate change, and encourage environmentally responsible
energy production.
The authorizing legislation capped the annual enrollment acreage for the program at 12,769,000 acres. Eligible lands are cropland, pastureland, grassland, rangeland, and, for the first time, non-industrialized private forests. Again, producers have until September 30 to submit their applications.
In the meantime the CSP interim final rule has been published in the federal register and will be available for public comment through September 28, 2009. The CSP is administered by the USDA’s Natural Resource and Conservation Service.
For more information on CSP and eligibility requirements click here.
To read the USDA news release click here
posted: 08/06/09
