| |
| |
| A curtain of dust descended twice in two days across eastern Nebraska this spring, causing multi-vehicle accidents that led to one death and dozens of injuries. It was the sort of event that could potentially be mitigated by agricultural conservation programs nestled in the farm bill wending its way through Congress. |
| Much of the debate over the contents of the multiyear farm bill has centered on food aid programs. But some conservationists and farmers are worried about proposed changes to two other initiatives, the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. |
| Farm conservation programs matter because two-thirds of United States lands are privately owned. “These lands are critically important to conservation on soil, water, fish, wildlife,” said Ashley Dayer, a professor of conservation social science at Virginia Tech. “If we just focused on public land, we would lose a lot of those benefits that the broader American public relies on and benefits from.” |
| The version of the bill passed by the House last month would fold C.S.P. into EQIP and cut $79.5 million a year in farm conservation spending over 10 years (total farm conservation spending is expected to be roughly $5 billion to $6 billion per year). The version passed by the Senate last week would keep the programs separate, cut C.S.P. by $100 million a year and EQIP by $150 million a year over the same period, and transfer those dollars to other conservation programs. Overall conservation spending would remain flat. |
| Many farmers and ranchers say they could not afford conservation measures without federal funds. When the 2014 farm bill cut conservation measures by $4 billion over 10 years, it included cuts to the largest farm conservation program, the Conservation Reserve Program. The program, in essence, pays farmers not to farm. But the cuts led some farmers to convert once-conserved grasslands back into farmland. |
| Converting farmland into grasslands helps lock planet-warming carbon into the soil, but a recent study found that converting the land back to farmland releases carbon back into the atmosphere. The grasses can also keep the soil from being blown about during windy weather. |
| Dr. Dayer recently interviewed farmers and ranchers in eastern Nebraska about conservation and dust storms. “They had seen, as a result of the Conservation Reserve Program, that there is less blowing dirt in that region,” she said. “But they’ve seen it start to increase again as there’s been less funds available for C.R.P.” |
| Some conservationists and farmers fear that merging the separate C.S.P. program into EQIP could water down the program. While EQIP funds a selection of vetted farm practices — like planting vegetation alongside streams to impede the flow of farm chemicals — C.S.P. takes a more holistic approach to farm management, said Adam Reimer, a postdoctoral researcher at Michigan State University. C.S.P. is more focused on outcomes and provides farmers more flexibility to achieve those conservation goals. |
| In May, about 50 Kansas farmers sent a letter to Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who heads the Agriculture Committee, asking that C.S.P. and other conservation programs be maintained. |
| Not all conservation groups share the concerns. Ducks Unlimited, a nonprofit waterfowl conservation organization whose members are primarily duck hunters, has thrown its support behind the conservation provisions in both versions of the farm bill. |
| “Whether it’s C.S.P. or EQIP or you kind of make up the name of the program, as long as we can keep doing those practices and funding keeps flowing toward conservation practices, we’re happy,” said Kellis Moss, the group’s director of public policy. |
