USDA OFFERS FINANCIAL REWARDS FOR PRIVATE LAND STEWARDSHIP

Two Workshops Scheduled to Help Kenai Farmers, Ranchers Enroll

Palmer, AK, March 24, 2005— Alaska's best conservation stewards in the Lower Kenai Peninsula Watershed gained the opportunity to be rewarded for their hard work when Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced the first national sign-up of the historic Conservation Security Program (CSP). The 60-day sign up will begin March 28, 2005.

CSP provides financial rewards and technical assistance to agricultural producers who advance the conservation of soil, water, air, energy, plant and animal life on Tribal and private working lands.

Once a producer has satisfied basic eligibility requirements, an evaluation of their natural resource stewardship will result in their placement into an enrollment category for funding consideration.  At the highest enrollment category levels, landowners could be rewarded with annual payments of up to $45,000 annually for up to ten years.

“CSP is an entirely new direction in USDA conservation programs,” said Acting State Conservationist Febe Ortiz.   “While conservation incentive programs date back to the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, CSP is the first time agricultural producers are being paid not just to fix a problem  -- but in recognition of their ongoing stewardship and to maintain and further enhance that conservation commitment.”

CSP features an eight-year cycle, so each year about one-eighth of the Alaska’s eligible farmers will be given the chance to apply.  More information about CSP in Alaska is available at www.ak.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/CSP.html.

Nationally, in 2005, CSP is being made available on private agricultural land in 220 watersheds, covering about 185 million acres. The national $202 million budget will allow NRCS to offer an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 contracts to eligible farmers and ranchers.

To help prepare agricultural producers for CSP, workshops will be held in Homer March 29 at 5 p.m. in the Best Western Bidarka Inn, and in Kasilof April 6 from 7 – 9 p.m. at the Tustamena School Multi-Purpose Room.

Contact information for the Homer and Kenai NRCS field offices is available at www.ak.nrcs.usda.gov/contact/fieldoffices.html, or by calling 907-761-7760.

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