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May 29, 2007
index to previous eNotes

1. President Bush Signs Supplemental Appropriations Bill
2. Senator Harkin Reveals Ideas for Conservation Title
3. House Agriculture Subcommittee Reviews Farm Bill Livestock Provisions
4. Committee Members Continue Work on 2008 Appropriations
5. Forest Service Announces Two New Grant Opportunities
6. EPA Offers An $8 Million Grant to Provide Environmental Assistance for Livestock Operators
7. Improved Web Soil Survey Now Online
8. Congress on Recess

1. President Bush Signs Supplemental Appropriations Bill
The President signed the War Supplemental Appropriations Bill on Friday, May 25. Passage of the bill clears the way for more focused attention to the regular appropriations bills for FY 2008. The supplemental included long sought emergency assistance for farmers and ranchers. It also included funding to support USDA Farm Service Agency’s computer and network stabilization and lifted the cap previously placed on the Conservation Security Program (CSP). The change in the CSP cap will likely affect the scoring process for conservation programs in the upcoming Farm Bill as well as affect future sign ups for the program.

2. Senator Harkin Reveals Ideas for Conservation Title
Following the House Agriculture Committee Farm Bill mark-up last week, Senator Harkin laid out very different plans for the envisioned 2007 Farm Bill Conservation title. The Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman plans to boost conservation spending in the tune of $6 billion for the next five years. The added money would be dependent on dollars from the reserve fund in the 2008 budget resolution and would require offsets or savings from other programs.

Harkin’s proposal calls for the consolidation of three conservation working lands programs into a combined program that would include the functions and goals of the Conservation Security Program, the Environmental Quality Incentives program and the Wildlife Habitat Incentive program. The new Conservation Stewardship Incentive program would be funded at $3 billion over five years. The Chairman is also pushing further consolidation of conservation easement programs by combining the Grasslands Reserve Program and the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program.

The Conservation Reserve Program would maintain its current acreage cap, see increased national emphasis on at-risk species, and undergo technical oversight changes for managed haying and grazing. $1.9 billion in offsets would be needed to reauthorize the Wetlands Reserve Program.

3. House Agriculture Subcommittee Reviews Farm Bill Livestock Provisions
Lawmakers continue to review sections of the proposed 2007 Farm Bill in an effort to pass a new bill before the current legislation expires in September. Congress is on track to continued intense action on the Farm Bill throughout the summer months.

Last Wednesday, the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry completed action on Title I provisions under the subcommittee’s jurisdiction. The subcommittee, led by Chairman Leonard Boswell (D-IA), considered provisions to the dairy and miscellaneous subtitles and approved amendments.

The dairy related provisions approved by the subcommittee included a dairy products price support program, permanent authorization of the dairy forward pricing program, an extension of the dairy export incentive program, new deadlines for the Federal milk marketing order process, and new USDA requirements for reporting requirements on non-fat dry milk.

Miscellaneous provisions included a repeal of the prohibition on a mandatory animal identification system for country-of-origin labeling, recognition of the importance of swine pseudorabies eradication, and prevention of State or locality prohibition of interstate shipment of USDA inspected meat.

Approved amendments included voluntary arbitration for livestock or poultry contract disputes and $12 million of assistance to the veal industry to mitigate recent trade impacts on the industry.  

For more information on House Agriculture Committee Farm Bill mark-ups, please see http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/2007FarmBill.html.  

4. Committee Members Continue Work on 2008 Appropriations
The Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies considered the 2008 appropriations for agencies under its jurisdiction last week. Agencies covered by the bill include the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Forest Service. Funding for EPA 319 grants is slated at $204 million, which is $5 million more than the fiscal year 2007 level.

The Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water also marked up their bill last week. NACD’s funding priority, the Water 2025 grants, is administered by the Bureau of Reclamation which falls in the jurisdiction of this subcommittee.

The next step for the process will be full committee approval of the proposed bills. Stay tuned for further information on the timing and the actions on the bills in the next couple of weeks.

5. Forest Service Announces Two New Grant Opportunities
The National Forest Restoration Working Partnership Grants - The Forest Service is offering a one-time grant opportunity of $1.2 million to highlight examples of landscape-scale partnerships involving forest restoration and the use of woody biomass. Funding is provided to support 10-12 projects, which demonstrate working partnerships among conservation districts, resource conservation and development (RC&D) councils, state foresters, local government and community-based groups. Funding will support and capture successful projects and actions completed by the applicants to advance a shared vision of forest restoration and the many uses and benefits of woody biomass utilization. Applications must be received by July 13, 2007.

Wood to Energy “Jump-start” Program Grants – Conservation districts working jointly with their state forestry agency will want to ask about the $800,000 that is being made available for energy projects. Examples include an education program, preliminary woody biomass feasibility assessments at a public facility, an inventory of existing sources such as hazardous fuels or landfill waste or a market assessment of the state boiler systems. Grants will range from $25,000 to $75,000 and state foresters must apply by June 29, 2007.

Both of these one-time grant opportunities are being offered through the Forest Service Technology Marketing Unit in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information on the programs and how to apply see www.fpl.fs.fed.us/tmu.

6. EPA Offers An $8 Million Grant to Provide Environmental Assistance for Livestock Operators
EPA is requesting applications from organizations for a $7.9 million grant to provide technical assistance to livestock operators, including animal feeding operations, for the prevention of water discharges and reduction of air emissions.

The grant recipient will provide livestock operations with two types of technical assistance at no cost to the operator: (1) comprehensive assessments of water and air quality environmental challenges and recommendations for strategies to mitigate these challenges; and (2) development or review of the facility's nutrient management plan, which specifies the amount of manure that can be applied to crops so the potential for runoff to water bodies is minimized. All livestock operations in the United States are eligible to receive assistance from the grant recipient.

The deadline for grant applications is July 9, 2007.

More information about this grant opportunity is available at http://www.epa.gov/npdes/afo.

7. Improved Web Soil Survey Now Online
NRCS recently launched an enhanced version of the Web Soil Survey, a web-based program that provides the public with soil maps, soil properties and soil usage needed for making good land use decisions. The latest update can be accessed at http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov.

Below are key improvements included in the new version of the Web Soil Survey:

• The homepage has been redesigned to make navigation easier and more intuitive for the visitor.
• A shopping cart feature has been added, enabling the customer to accumulate content, then download and/or print one composite PDF file with selected thematic maps and soil reports, basic soil maps, map unit legends and map unit descriptions.
• Customers now have access to the Public Land Survey System Section data to ease navigating to specific areas of interest.
• Federal land ownership boundaries for United States Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and Department of Defense also have been added.

Check out the enhanced Web Soil Survey tool at http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov.

8. Congress on Recess
Members of the House and Senate are making visits to their home districts this week during the Memorial Day Recess. Be sure to take advantage of this time while your Representatives are at home to talk about conservation districts, the conservation title of the 2007 Farm Bill and the importance of conservation technical assistance and funding for other conservation programs. Congress will resume work in D.C. on June 4.

For queries about this newsletter or to subscribe, contact editor Lisa Lerwick, NACD Director of Communications, at Lisa-Lerwick@nacdnet.org or 202-547-6223.