NEWS RELEASE 

United States Department of Agriculture
Natural Resources Conservation Service
Box 33124
100 East B Street
Casper, Wyoming  82601

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:   Cheryl Grapes, (307) 233-6762
                Jay Mar, (307) 233-6757

FIRST NATIONAL SIGN-UP FOR NEW CONSERVATION STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM BEGINS AUG. 10

CASPER, Aug 7, 2009 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will begin continuous sign-up for the new Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) on August 10 in Wyoming. The first cutoff for ranking purposes is scheduled for Sept. 30, Wyoming NRCS State Conservationist Xavier Montoya announced today.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) administers CSP, a voluntary conservation program that encourages agricultural and forestry producers to maintain existing conservation activities and adopt additional ones on their operations.

“Wyoming producers have a great opportunity through the CSP to increase their level of conservation activity,” said Montoya. “It is yet another tool to help protect our land, improve the quality of our soil and water, maintain and enhance healthy rangelands and habitat, and encourage renewable energy production.”

The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill) authorizes CSP. Congress renamed and implemented major changes to the former Conservation Security Program to improve its availability and appeal to agricultural and forestry producers.

Eligible lands include privately owned cropland, grassland, pastureland, rangeland, non-industrial private forestland, and agricultural land under the jurisdiction of an Indian tribe.

Agricultural and forestry producers must submit their applications by Sept. 30 to be considered for funding in the first ranking period.

Individual producers, legal entities and Indian tribes must meet several requirements to obtain a Conservation Stewardship Program contract. They must be listed as the operator in the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) farm records management system for the operation being offered for enrollment. They must document that they control the land for the term of the contract and include all eligible land in their entire operation in that contract. They must comply with highly erodible land and wetland conservation provisions and comply with Adjusted Gross Income provisions.

The program will be offered to producers nationwide and the Pacific and Caribbean areas through continuous sign-ups. Congress capped the acreage enrollment at 12,769,000 acres for each fiscal year. The annual payment limitation for a person or legal entity is $40,000. A person or legal entity cannot exceed $200,000 for all contracts entered into during any five-year period.

“I strongly encourage Wyoming folks who may be interested in the program to use the self-screening checklist as the first step to determine whether this new program is suitable for their operation,” Montoya said. “This checklist is available on the NRCS Web site and at NRCS field offices.”

Once a potential participant has determined program suitability, the next step is for an NRCS conservationist and the producer to jointly enter the producer’s current and proposed conservation practices into the conservation measurement tool (CMT). The CMT tool estimates the level of environmental performance achieved by the maintenance and implementation of conservation activities. The conservation performance estimated by the CMT will be used to rank applications.

Wyoming has designated five CSP geographic areas. Applications will be ranked within each geographic area (not statewide or nationwide) as follows:  Central (Albany, Carbon, Converse, and Natrona counties); Northeast (Campbell, Crook, Johnson, Sheridan, and Weston counties); Northwest (Big Horn, Fremont, Hot Springs, Park, and Washakie counties); Southeast (Goshen, Laramie, Niobrara, and Platte counties); and Southwest (Lincoln, Sublette, Sweetwater, Teton, and Uinta counties).

Agency field staff also will conduct on-site field verifications of applicants’ information obtained from the CMT for applicants approved for funding.  Once the potential application has been field verified, the producer must develop a conservation stewardship plan as part of his/her program contract.

For additional information about CSP, including eligibility requirements and the interim final rule, please visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/new_csp or visit your local NRCS field office.

USDA is finalizing the program’s policies and procedures. The CSP interim final rule, published in the Federal Register, is open for public comment through Sept. 28.

 -End-

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