Virginia farmers in six soil and water conservation districts are being urged to participate in a pilot program to collect information about conservation practices they have implemented.Wilmer Stoneman, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation associate director of governmental relations, stated that, "farmers need to know what's going on, and they should participate. This is a program that is valuable to them. It's a direct response to Farm Bureau's complaints that incomplete data is being used by the Environmental Protection Agency to draw up mandatory conservations programs to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed."
"We know that a lot more conservation practices have been installed or are in use on Virginia farms than are on record. They have to be, since there has never been enough cost-share funding to meet the demand for financial assistance. So many farmers paid for these practices out of their own pockets, but they are not being credited in the EPA model."
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Posted 10/23/2011
