From Debbie Neustadt

I have already sent around one press release critizing the Bush Adm.
proposal to fund technical assistance in the farm bill from the
Sustainable
Agriculture Coalition. This press  release comes from the National
Association of Conservation Districts. These are the local folks that
are elected in each county  to help implement these programs.
This came over a USDA listserve

Washington, DC- In a letter sent today to President Bush, as well as
congressional leaders, the National Association of Conservation
Districts vigorously opposed a budget amendment proposed by the Bush
administration that would significantly decrease technical assistance to

thousands of America's farmers and ranchers who want to practice good
stewardship on their land. Less conservation applied to the land will,
in turn, jeopardize the cleaner water and air, improved soil quality and

enhanced wildlife habitat benefits that all American's receive from
sound land stewardship.



The Bush proposal, forwarded to the Congress from the Office of Budget
and Management on January 7, 2003, would establish a new $332 million
discretionary account to fund technical assistance services for federal
financial conservation programs but at the expense of other U.S.
Department of Agriculture conservation, nutrition and other programs.



Currently, USDA delivers conservation technical assistance through the
Natural Resource Conservation Service to land managers that participate
in federal financial assistance programs, as well as to producers who
bear the full costs of installing conservation measures. This proposal
would significantly reduce federal funding used to assist producers who
apply conservation practices at their own expense, and redirect these
resources to producers who also receive federal funding to offset the
cost of installing conservation measures.



The proposal would also impair the ability of USDA to collaborate with
state and local governments in addressing private lands conservation
challenges because federal funding to offset shared costs would be
drastically reduced.



NACD President J. Read Smith called the move "ill-conceived and
shortsighted," noting the irony that the proposal penalizes the
producers who are voluntarily spending their own money for conservation
measures that provide important public benefits.



"While we clearly support much of the President's private lands
conservation agenda, it appears that he was not fully apprised of the
negative impacts that this proposal would have on producers and
longstanding intergovernmental agreements that were struck to help land
managers apply conservation measures," said Smith.



NACD is calling on Congress to reject the proposed amendment and to
instead fully fund conservation technical assistance as mandated by law
in the 2002 Farm Bill.



# # #



The National Association of Conservation Districts is the nonprofit
organization that represents the nation's 3,000 conservation districts
and 17,000 men and women who serve on their governing boards. For 65
years, local conservation districts have worked with the more than 2.5
million cooperating landowners and managers of private working lands to
help them plan and apply conservation treatments to control erosion and
improve the quality of our soil resources, water supply, fish and
wildlife habitat, and woodlands, pasturelands and rangelands for the
benefit of all citizens in America.

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