COLUMBIA, MO, November 8, 2004 – Six Missouri watersheds are among 202 across
the nation selected to participate in the Conservation Security Program (CSP)
this year. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman announced the selected
watersheds Tuesday and said that sign-ups for CSP would begin this winter.
The Missouri watersheds include about 9,463 farms and 3.1 million acres. They
are:
• North Fork Salt (parts of Adair, Macon, Shelby, Schuyler, Knox and Monroe
counties); 1,310 farms, 436,000 acres.
• South Fork Salt (parts of Macon, Randolph, Monroe, Boone, Callaway,
Shelby and Audrain counties); 1,976 farms, 598,000 acres.
• Blackwater (parts of Saline, Lafayette, Pettis, Cooper and Johnson
counties); 2,762 farms, 791,000 acres.
• Platte (parts of Nodaway, Andrew, DeKalb, Clinton, Clay, Platte, Worth,
Gentry and Buchanan counties as well as parts of Iowa); 2,408 Missouri farms,
598,000 acres.
• Lower St. Francis (parts of Bollinger, Wayne, Stoddard, Butler and
Dunklin counties as well as parts of Arkansas); 492 Missouri farms, 229,000
acres.
• New Madrid-St. Johns (parts of Scott, Mississippi and New Madrid
counties); 515 farms, 415,000 acres.
CSP, part of the 2002 Farm Bill, was introduced last summer in 18 watersheds
nationwide, including the Little River Ditches Watershed in southeastern
Missouri. Administered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS),
CSP is a voluntary program that supports ongoing conservation stewardship of
agricultural working lands and enhances the condition of America’s natural
resources. It compensates farmers for maintaining and enhancing natural
resources. About one-eighth of the nation’s eligible farmers will have the
chance to apply each year over an eight-year period.
“Agricultural producers in Missouri have been protecting our soil and water
resources for years,” said Roger A. Hansen, NRCS state conservationist. “Now
some of them have an opportunity to be rewarded for that stewardship. In time,
they all will have that opportunity.”
Hansen said that a renewable energy component has been added this year that
will further compensate farmers for converting to renewable energy fuels such as
soy bio-diesel and ethanol, for recycling 100 percent of on-farm lubricants, and
for implementing energy production, including wind, solar, geothermal and
methane production.
Participants can enroll in one of three tiers in the program, depending on
the extent of the conservation treatment in place on their farms or ranches.
Payments will be based in part on this existing conservation treatment as well
as their willingness to undertake additional environmental enhancements.
NRCS will offer local workshops in the selected watersheds to more fully
explain the program to interested potential participants. CSP will continue to
be offered each year, on a rotational basis, in as many watersheds as funding
allows. For more information on CSP and other NRCS programs see links below o
r
contact the NRCS office serving your county. Look in the phone book under “U.S.
Government, Department of Agriculture,”
About Us
Back to Top