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. *********************************************** The Enviro-News list facilitates information exchange. Inclusion of an item in Enviro-News does not imply United States Department of Agriculture(USDA) agreement, nor does USDA attest to the accuracy or completeness of the item. (See http://www.nal.usda.gov/listserv.html.) You can contact the list owner at [log in to unmask] *********************************************** - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp