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WASHINGTON, May 7, 2008—NRCS Chief Arlen Lancaster announced that producers in 51 eligible watersheds nationwide will have two additional weeks to apply for the Conservation Security Program in fiscal year 2008. The sign-up began April 18, 2008 and now ends May 30, 2008. Originally, the sign-up was scheduled to end on May 16, 2008. NRCS is extending the sign-up to give farmers and ranchers as much time as possible to gather their natural resource information and complete the required self-assessment and applicant interview. Also, natural disasters—such as excessive spring rains and flooding in certain parts of the country that caused delays in planting—played a role in the agency’s decision, Lancaster said. A notice of the extension is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Friday, May 9, 2008.

Links…
NRCS news release “USDA Extends Sign-up for 2008 Conservation Security Program,” (May 7, 2008)

Conservation Security Program Watersheds for Fiscal Year 2008

Conservation Security Program

Schafer Recognizes Work of USDA Provincial

Reconstruction Team Advisors Who Served in Afghanistan and Iraq

Special Recognition. Secretary Ed Schafer presents a Special Recognition Award to NRCS Chief Arlen Lancaster and Certificates of Appreciation to Herby Bloodworth and Melvin Westbrook for work done by NRCS employees in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Inscription: International Programs Division, NRCS. For continued excellence and unparalleled contributions in support of the USDA's program to reconstruct and revitalize the agricultural sectors in Afghanistan and Iraq.

On Friday, May 2, USDA honored more than 40 Department employees, including 14 NRCS personnel, for their service in Afghanistan and Iraq. The ceremony recognized those who have completed deployments as Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) agriculture advisors, ministry advisors, or Foreign Service officers serving at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

“The greatest honor we can bestow on the USDA employees here with us today is to continue the mission to help rebuild and revitalize the physical and institutional agricultural sectors in Afghanistan and Iraq so that the work they performed will have lasting effects for the people and land of those countries,” said Secretary Ed Schafer.

Secretary Schafer presented a special recognition award to Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Arlen Lancaster for having contributed more employees than any other USDA agency to the U.S. Government effort to stabilize and rebuild both countries. They are:

Afghanistan and Iraq	Afghanistan	Iraq
Manuel Ayala	Alan Wood Alex H. Johnson, Jr. Anthony Beals J. Andrew Adam Gary S. Domian Jeff Knowles Jeff Sanders John D. Minnick Joseph B. Fuchtman Michael I. Gangwer Stacy Crevello William P. O'Donnell	Rebecca Burt

Secretary Schafer and Under Secretary Mark Rey presented an award to the family of Steven Thomas “Tom” Stefani, a Forest Service employee, who died while voluntarily serving as an agricultural advisor on a PRT in Afghanistan. Secretary Schafer presented the Thomas Jefferson Star award, along with Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy from State Department, to the Stefani family.

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Schafer Recognizes Work of USDA Provincial Reconstruction Team Advisors Who Served in Afghanistan and Iraq

USDA Honors Dee River Ranch for Conservation Work

Winners of the 2008 Excellence in Conservation Award. Mike and Ann Dee of Dee River Ranch go the extra mile to ensure their operation is profitable and environmentally sound, while reducing erosion and improving soil and habitat. NRCS Alabama image.

Winners of the 2008 Excellence in Conservation Award. Mike and Annie Dee of Dee River Ranch go the extra mile to ensure their operation is profitable and environmentally sound, while reducing erosion and improving soil and habitat. NRCS Alabama image.

On April 30, 2008, Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Gary Mast presented the 2008 Excellence in Conservation Award to Mike and Annie Dee of Dee River Ranch, Aliceville, Alabama.

“True conservation of our natural resources can be achieved only when groups and individuals put their commitment to conservation into action,” said Mast. “Annie and Mike Dee share their knowledge of conservation with communities and individuals across Alabama regularly and with distinction.”

Mike and Annie are very stewardship conscious. Mike says, "As we think of stewardship, we can’t be limited to look at next year’s crops, be it corn, wheat, or cattle. We have to think about the next 10 years. We have to be improving the soil and the environment all the time because we have to produce more from every acre to maintain our livelihood and success. We have to be improving all the time, not just maintaining."

Brother and sister Mike and Annie Dee have gone the extra mile to ensure that their farming operation is not only profitable but also environmentally sound. They have incorporated conservation practices into their farming operation that have enhanced the productivity of the farm, reduced soil erosion, improved moisture retention in the soil, and provided wildlife habitat.

The award ceremony was held at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Convention Center during the national observance of Soil and Water Stewardship Week, April 27 to May 4, 2008. Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, Ron Sparks, and NRCS Assistant State Conservationist, Zona Beaty, joined Deputy Under Secretary Mast in recognizing the leadership, accomplishments and cooperative efforts of Dee River Ranch.

The NRCS Excellence in Conservation Award as a national award is the highest award the agency gives to honor those outside the Federal government for their work in conservation. This annual award recognizes the voluntary contributions of non-governmental individuals, groups, and Tribes through their conservation efforts in areas of technical assistance, programs delivery, technology transfer, outreach, or communication.

Link...

NRCS News Release USDA Honors Dee River Ranch for Conservation Work

NRCS Alabama Feature Article Miles of Stewardship: The Dee River Ranch

Dee River Ranch: True Excellence in Conservation (Remarks prepared for delivery by Gary W. Mast, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment, for the NRCS 2008 Excellence in Conservation Award Ceremony)

Schafer Marks Earth Day with $2.6 Million to Protect Maryland Farmland

On Earth Day 2008, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced that Maryland will receive $2.6 million in Fiscal Year 2008 to protect agricultural land through the Natural Resources Conservation Service's Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP). Funding will be distributed to the Baltimore County Agricultural Land Preservation Program and the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy.

The two agreements will protect 622 acres of farmland. Baltimore County's $1.6 million will protect 341 acres on five farms. The Eastern Shore Land Conservancy agreement covers 281 acres on a family farm in Talbot County, the second phase of this agricultural land preservation project.

Secretary Schafer announced the funding at an Earth Day celebration held on the Glenn Elseroad Farm in Reisterstown, Maryland.

USDA-NRCS in Maryland has worked with 15 cooperating entities to protect about 35,000 acres on 257 farms through FRPP since its inception. Maryland has used more than $31 million in FRPP funds since 1996.

FRPP has protected about 533,000 acres on 2,764 farms and ranches nationwide from 1996-2007. In that time, USDA-NRCS has invested $536 million into FRPP across the country, working with 348 cooperating entities.

Schafer Announces Conservation Security Program Sign-up

Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced a sign-up for the Conservation Security Program will be available starting on April 18 to approximately 64,000 potentially eligible farms and ranches in 51 watersheds covering more than 23.7 million acres.

"Since the first sign-up in 2004, CSP has offered payments for enhancing natural resources, rewarding those farmers and ranchers who are model conservationists, and providing incentives for other producers to achieve those same high standards of conservation in agriculture," Schafer said.

This announcement, open from April 18 to May 16, brings the number of watersheds enrolled to 331 across the Nation, covering 247.7 million acres that have been eligible for the program.

CSP is a voluntary program that supports ongoing stewardship of private, agricultural working lands and rewards those producers who are meeting the highest standards of conservation and environmental management on their operations.

The sign-up announcement and specific program requirements are being published in the Federal Register.

California’s Stone Family Honored with National Environmental Stewardship Award

Environmental Stewardship Award winners, the Stone Family of Yolo County, California. Known nationwide as big-picture conservationists, the Stones improve every resource on their 7,500-acre operation, enhancing the resource base and providing social benefits across two watersheds.

The Stone Family of Yolo County, California, is the national winner of the Environmental Stewardship Award Program. The Stones preserve the natural beauty and wildlife of their ranch, practice innovative resource management, while raising one of the top commercial herds of Angus cattle in California.

“This year the selection of a national winner was extremely difficult, with six strong applications vying for the national award,” explains Iowa cattleman Dave Petty, chairman of the selection committee. “All of these stewards are operating in difficult environmental conditions and they are going above and beyond. It gives us great pleasure to award the Stone Family, who has been operating for generations, as this year’s national winner. Their commitment to the cattle industry and preserving their land, speaks volumes about the operations commitment to conservation.”

"Many people who come to us for conservation help come seeking answers and fixes for one problem—erosion or invasive species, water issues or whatever it may be," says Phil Hogan, Yolo County District Conservationist for USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). "But the Stones have tackled and achieved improvements in each resource: soil, water, native plants, and wildlife habitat. They are big picture people."

Hank and Suzanne Stone, owners of Yolo Land & Cattle Company, along with their sons, Scott and Casey Stone, and their wives, Karen and Angela Stone, have made it a family goal to continually enhance and improve their ranching operation while involving the community. Their efforts have brought together their neighbors, surrounding school children, Audubon California and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, NRCS and other state and local organizations and agencies. Their vegetative management program has become California’s largest for the purpose of conducting annual spring grass burns and fall brush burns on a total of 45,000 acres in western Yolo County.

Attracting conservationists by the busload. Conservation activities put into practice on the Stone's Yolo County ranch attract conservationists, public officials, students, and many others from around the country. This visit brought in current and past USDA officials to see how Federal programs benefit the Stone's operation and the local resource base.

Attracting conservationists by the busload. Conservation activities put into practice on the Stone Family's Yolo County ranch attract conservationists, public officials, students, and many others from around the country. This visit brought in current and past USDA officials to see how Federal programs benefit the Stone's operation and the local resource base.

The long list of improvements that the Stone's have made in their 7,500 acre ranch includes replacing annual and invasive species with native grass plantings and prescribed burning, rotationally grazing their herd and excluding them from ponds and streams with the assistance of fencing and solar-powered watering troughs; restoration of ponds through grading, fencing and planting native grasses, shrubs and trees.

According to Hogan the mere size of the Stone ranch, strategically located against the Central Coast Range and spreading across two watersheds gives them a special opportunity to improve social benefits such as water quality and wildlife corridors which are much harder to achieve with smaller parcels of land.

The Stones, however, have enlarged these benefits beyond their own considerable holdings by involving neighbors, partners, and the public in their efforts. For example, Scott Stone, worked with Audubon California to convince 26 neighbors to take part in an effort with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE) to control brush encroachment into the grasslands and improve habitat qualities of the land. It is the largest Vegetation Management Plan of its kind in the State.

Public education opportunities on the ranch have involved everyone from budding NRCS conservationists to school children to chefs from the Culinary Institute of America.

"People across America essentially desire the same things: open spaces, clean water and a safe food supply, produced in an environmentally healthy and sustainable manner. That is how we try to run our businesses," says Scott Stone.

NRCS, the National Cattlemen’s Foundation, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Dow AgroSciences, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service sponsor the award program.

Links...

Landowner Profile : Hank Stone

Stone Ranch Photo Gallery

NRCS California news release Yolo Land & Cattle Company Wins National Environmental Stewardship Award

NRCS and Partners Honor Outstanding Employees and Volunteers

The American Forest Foundation honors three NRCS State Conservationists. From left to right, Richard Sims, State Conservationist of Idaho, Terry Cosby, State Conservationist of Ohio, AFF Senior Vice President Kathy McGlauflin, and Illinois State Conservationist Bill Gradle. NRCS image.

On February 14, NRCS leaders from across the Nation honored outstanding employees and volunteers who go the extra mile to help people help the land. These individuals and organizations exemplify the spirit that fires the Agency's just-released Conservation... Our Purpose. Our Passion. campaign, and play pivotal roles in helping private landowners and inspire others to put conservation on the ground—the true measure of our success as an Agency and a conservation community.

Links to the winners...

The American Forest Association's NRCS State Conservationist Awards honoring three innovative NRCS State Conservationists committed to improving forest resources and building and strengthening partnerships.

National Civil Rights Awards celebrating outstanding outreach, and employee recruitment and retention.

Earth Team Awards spotlights volunteers who turn their time and talent to putting conservation on the land.

Montana Farmer Honored with 1st Annual NACD/NRCS Olin Sims Conservation Leadership Award

Third-generation Montana farmer Milo “Buzz” Mattelin, winner of the 1st Annual NACD/NRCS Olin Sims Conservation Leadership Award.

Montana farmer Milo L. “Buzz” Mattelin has received the 1st Annual NACD/NRCS Olin Sims Conservation Leadership Award for his leadership and service in conserving natural resources on privately owned land.

Mattelin, a third-generation Montana farmer, has helped establish working relationships with federal, state, and local government agencies; tribes; and private and nonprofit conservation organizations.

“Buzz Mattelin’s leadership has been instrumental in establishing conservation partnerships at all levels. His efforts have produced real conservation benefits on the land and inspired others to be better stewards,” said NRCS Chief Arlen Lancaster.

Mattelin's family has had a presence along the Missouri River in Montana for more than 93 years. He became involved in Missouri River issues in the early 1990s with a grassroots effort that has become the Lower Missouri Coordinated Resource Management Council.

He is also a founding member of the Missouri River Conservation Districts Council, comprised of the 16 conservation districts that border the Missouri River in Montana.

He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Colorado State University 1975.

Established in tribute to the late NACD President, the Olin Sims Conservation Leadership Award recognizes outstanding conservation leadership at the state and local levels. Sims, a rancher from McFadden, Wyoming, lived a life distinguished by years of volunteer service to conservation.

Link...

NRCS news release: Montana Farmer Honored with 1st Annual NACD/NRCS Olin Sims Conservation Leadership Award

Conservation. Our Purpose. Our Passion image.

Conservation…Our Purpose. Our Passion.
A National Campaign

On a daily basis, NRCS employees, landowners and partners work together in a relationship of trust and cooperation that engenders success, leading to more productive lands and a healthier environment for all Americans. When farmers and ranchers talk about the work they’ve done on their land, they’re telling NRCS’ story, too. “Conservation…Our Purpose. Our Passion.” is designed to gain recognition for all the ways cooperative conservation supports our national priorities of cleaner air and water, improved soils and increased wildlife habitat. To learn more, follow the links below.

Links...
Conservation...Our Purpose. Our Passion. feature page with the campaign video and success stories that spotlight landowners from every state who reached their conservation goals with the help of NRCS conservation technical assistance and other programs.

NACD and NRCS - A Shared Passion for Conservation (A speech delivered by NRCS Chief Arlen Lancaster to the National Association of Conservation Districts' Annual Meeting, February 12, 2008)

NRCS Celebrates Pheasants Forever's 25 Years of Wildlife Conservation

NRCS Chief Arlen Lancaster offers the keynote at Pheasants Forever's Pheasant Fest 2008. Chief Lancaster praised Pheasants Forever for its simple approach to conservation and its partnership with USDA agencies. Pheasants Forever image.

Chief Lancaster thanks PF for its leadership in conservation

Minnesota’s sub-zero temperatures couldn’t put a freeze on National Pheasant Fest 2008, Pheasants Forever’s (PF) 25th Anniversary celebration held January 18-20 in St. Paul.

The record-breaking attendance mark of 29,802 made the event the largest in organization’s history.

USDA Secretary Chuck Conner at a Pheasant Fest news conference announced approval for 45 proposals of State Acres For wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) projects covering nearly 260,000 acres in 18 States. SAFE proposals encourage state-specific wildlife focused projects.

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Lancaster, in his Saturday-evening keynote address, read a letter from President George W. Bush recognizing PF’s 25 years.

“Your organization has worked successfully to protect and improve habitat through education and responsible land management programs,” said President Bush, “and this anniversary is a chance to celebrate your accomplishments and continue your good work.”

Lancaster told PF members that they have very much to be proud of. “Instead of just nodding your heads in agreement at the kitchen table, you and your neighbors heeded the call and have remained steadfast for 25 years.”

NRCS, the Farm Service Agency, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recognized PF with awards marking its 25 years of conservation success.

Since its inception in 1982, PF’s wildlife habitat projects have benefited more than 4 million acres across North America. It has partnered in nearly 1,000 different land recovery projects, totaling well over 100,000 acres. Many of these projects were completed in conjunction with Federal, State, and local natural resource agencies.

Pheasants Forever assists USDA with conservation implementation through such programs as the Wetlands Reserve Program, Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Grassland Reserve Program, and the Conservation Reserve Program.

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USDA Extends Sign-up for 2008 Conservation Security Program