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Rewarding the Best, Motivating the Rest


Generalized version of remarks delivered by U.S. Department of Agriculture Officials at Conservation Security Program Contract Signing Ceremonies in participating watersheds around the nation


August 26-27, 2004


Some of America’s best conservationists are right here in this watershed. We are gathered here today to recognize them – and to celebrate a new golden age of conservation on America’s agricultural lands.

This new golden age is coming about as a result of a record investment in conservation that started when President Bush signed the farm bill of 2002. Through the farm bill, Congress, the Administration, and the American people are investing an additional $17 billion in conservation.

Today marks the formal beginning of this nation’s newest conservation program -- the Conservation Security Program (CSP). CSP is the first conservation program specifically designed to reward the best stewards of America‘s agricultural land and to motivate other producers to do more conservation on their farms and ranches.


The Conservation Portfolio

CSP rounds out the already existing portfolio of USDA conservation programs available to help our nation’s farmers and ranchers reach their environmental goals of conserving, maintaining, and improving America’s natural resources and environment.

CRP

That portfolio includes the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) administered by the Farm Service Agency. CRP participants voluntarily remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production by entering into long-term contracts for 10 to 15 years. In exchange, participants receive annual rental payments and a payment of up to 50 percent of the cost of establishing conservation practices.

The 2002 Farm Bill increased the number of acres authorized for CRP enrollment by 3 million -- up to 39.2 million acres. CRP’s Farmable Wetland Program was extended to all States and the cap increased to 1 million acres.

President Bush recently announced that USDA will expand and extend the CRP to make sure farmlands stay protected. The President has directed Secretary Veneman to offer early re-enrollments and extensions of existing contracts.

In addition, the administration is expanding CRP to cover vital grasslands to help protect 250,000 acres of grasslands including habitat for the Northern Bobwhite Quail. Finally, the President is expanding CRP to cover 250,000 acres of wetlands that are not in flood plains. Farmers in the Midwest call these wetlands "prairie potholes." They offer a home for ducks and other birds and that's good for wildlife.

EQIP

The farm bill emphasizes conservation on working lands. The most dramatic growth in support for working lands conservation is in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The 1996 farm bill provided a 6-year investment of $1.3 billion for EQIP. The new farm bill provided more than $5-1/2 billion over 6 years. The farm bill also provided new funding under EQIP for ground and surface water conservation activities. EQIP is USDA’s largest cost-share program for working lands. This year, we will fund more than 36,000 contracts

WHIP

The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) increased from $50 million under the old farm bill to $360 million over 6 years under the new farm bill. The program provides cost sharing for landowners who want to develop and improve wildlife habitat. WHIP is USDA’s largest cost share program for wildlife. This year we will fund more than 3,100 contracts. Conservation on the ground helps many species of wildlife that are threatened or endangered. WHIP is a prime example of the President’s preference for voluntary, science based conservation to preserve species without the need for regulatory listings.

WRP

The farm bill also includes a number of other programs in the portfolio designed to protect various types of land. The Administration has more than doubled investment in the Wetlands Reserve Program, (WRP) to cover more than 2 million acres, with a commitment to enroll up to 250,000 acres each year.

FRPP

The Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) provides funds to State, tribal, or local governments and to nonprofit organization to help purchase easements protecting productive farm and ranch land from conversion to nonagricultural uses. The 1996 farm bill allocated up to $35 million. The new farm bill raised that to nearly $600 million over 6 years.

GRP

The new Grassland Reserve Program (GRP) provides a quarter of a billion dollars in mandatory spending to enroll up to 2 million acres in rental agreements or easements.

PL-556

The farm bill also includes watershed-based programs, including $600 million over 6 years under the Small Watershed Rehabilitation Program to rehabilitate or remove aging dams that pose health and safety threats. This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act of 1954, and many States have had events commemorating the anniversary.


Other Presidential Initiatives

In addition to the unprecedented conservation work being done under the 2002 Farm bill, President Bush announced a number of other conservation initiatives.

Wetlands

This year on Earth day, the President announced an aggressive new national goal -- moving beyond a policy of "no net loss" of wetlands to have an overall increase of wetlands in America each year. The President's goal is to create, improve, and protect at least three million wetland acres over the next five years in order to increase the nation’s overall wetland acres and quality. To achieve this goal, the President called on Congress to pass his FY 2005 budget request, which provides $4.4 billion for conservation programs, including include funding for wetlands – an increase of $1.5 billion (53%) over FY 2001. The FY 2005 budget proposes to spend $349 million on our two key wetlands programs -- the Wetlands Reserve Program and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act Grants Program -- which is an increase of more than 50% over FY 2001 for those two programs.
Healthy Forests
President Bush also introduced the healthy forests initiative – a comprehensive environmental package that included many of the measures that became law under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. This law includes provisions that will reduce the threat of destructive wildfires while upholding environmental standards and encouraging early public input during review and planning processes.
The legislation is based on sound science and helps further the President's Healthy Forests Initiative pledge to care for America's forests and rangelands, reduce the risk of catastrophic fire to communities, help save the lives of firefighters and citizens, and protect threatened and endangered species.
The Healthy Forests Restoration Act:
• Strengthens public participation in developing high priority forest health projects;
• Reduces the complexity of environmental analysis allowing federal land agencies to use the best science available to actively manage land under their protection;
• Provides a more effective appeals process encouraging early public participation in project planning; and
• Issues clear guidance for court action against forest health projects.

Rewarding Producers

But our focus today is on rewarding farmers and ranchers for their stewardship activities.

If you’ve been working the land here in this watershed very long, you’ve been part of some of the best conservation our country has ever seen. You know first hand that there are many good stewards of the land in this part of the country. Good conservation is one reason why producers here in this watershed were selected to be among the first to participate in CSP.

I want to personally thank the many producers in this watershed who took the time and made the effort to participate in this year’s sign-up. Thank you also for your conservation leadership and your commitment to conservation in this watershed, this State and in the country.

You came forward and demonstrated that you were doing the right things to take good care of your land. You had the documentation to show what you were doing, and you were willing to sign on as charter members of the CSP approach to rewarding and promoting conservation.

The self assessment approach we used during this sign-up period is a new and -- we hope -- more efficient way for you to do business with USDA. The self assessment process allowed you to work on your application at home, any time, rather than having to spend workday hours in a Service Center office.

In addition to being more convenient for you, the self-assessment also freed up the time of NRCS workers, making them available to help you when you needed assistance. We think the self-assessment process freed up more than 2 staff years of time during the 24-day sign-up period alone!

We know there will be refinements along the way, as we work to make this electronic system work as efficiently as possible. Thank you for participating in this process. Through your efforts, our nation has indeed entered the next golden age of conservation.

At the same time, those of you who prefer using paper and pencil – and all of you who want face-to-face contact with USDA professionals, that we will always be there for you.

Nationally, producers in all of the selected watersheds showed strong interest in CSP. More than a third of all the landowners in the participation watersheds either came to a CSP workshop or visited one of our field offices to find out more about CSP.

We have been able to fund all of the applications that qualified for the program -- 2,189 in all.


Future Growth

The CSP contract we are signing today are just the first steps toward an innovative approach to conservation that will encompass every part of the country.

President Bush has included funding in his 2005 budget to allow producers in every State to participate in this program – more than five times this year’s funding – a total of $209 million. At this point in the budget process, the President’s proposal is the most generous offer on the table.

Next year, we plan to have a CSP sign-up in every State. In fact, state conservationists, in consultation with the State Technical Committees, are now prioritizing the watersheds for next year. In the very near future, every producer in the country will have a chance to participate in CSP.


Rewarding good Stewardship

Farmers and ranchers are good stewards because they value the land and they know best how to take good care of it. The land is their living. And it is their way of life.

Conservation on a single farm or ranch can reflect years, decades, or even generations of hard work and dedication. This stewardship ethic protects the natural resources on which future generations of Americans will depend. The soil, water, air, plants and wildlife of our nation are in better condition today because of the good stewardship of our farmers and ranchers.

Over the years, most Americans have come to appreciate the benefits of good stewardship. Society as a whole has come to demand more and better conservation from America’s farmers and ranchers – but the cost of this conservation has fallen largely on the farmers and ranchers themselves.

You do the work of keeping our soil healthy, our water clean and improving wildlife habitat. You do it on your own land and largely at your own expense.

CSP is a major step toward changing that mistaken approach. For the first time in the history of conservation of our natural resources, CSP gives us a way to recognize producers who practice good stewardship and – even better – to reward them financially.

CSP recognizes the best stewards of the land, helps them recover some of the costs of their conservation efforts, and uses their successes to motivate other producers to become better stewards.

Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman calls CSP a program to, “Reward the best and motivate the rest.” You can see that concept at work here in this watershed.


Conclusion

Within a couple of years, CSP will be a bigger program than EQIP, the largest conservation program currently administered by NRCS. If we – all of us – producers, USDA employees, local conservation leaders, and others in the conservation community -- make this program work to its full potential, Congress and the President may well decide to make it even bigger. To reward even more producers for their good stewardship and provide even greater motivation for other produces to improve their stewardship.

Beyond that, CSP will inspire the people of our nation with examples of the world’s best conservation practices, right here at home.

Development of CSP has required a major effort on the part of farmers and ranchers and conservation leaders everywhere. I want to thank all of you who have been so generous with your time, constructive comments, and patience. Your help has brought us to where we are this week – signing CSP contracts in 22 states around the nation.

The future success of this program will also be heavily dependent on local leadership, both in determining local conservation goals and in reaching out to – and involving – local producers in the process. We are counting on your help to make sure CSP lives up to its potential here in this watershed.

In this initial signup, we used local input to set conservation standards. Local input will continue to be important as CSP evolves and grows.

Together we will make sure that CSP effectively rewards the best stewards of the land and motivates others to become better stewards as well. The success of CSP will be good for individual producers and good for everyone who lives in a watershed – which means all of us – because everyone lives in a watershed.