09/10/05 What next for conservation?

Farm and Ranch September 1, 2005 The three-day White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation wrapped up yesterday in St. Louis, Missouri. And Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, is calling the event a huge success. Johanns: "Again the whole concept here is let's create partnerships. Let's reach out to the conservation community. Let's bring them into the discussion or debate to improve our conservation efforts." Johanns spoke at the event Monday where he announced several initiatives by USDA to continue the success of partnerships between federal, state, local and tribal partners. Johanns: "I indicated an additional 30-million dollars is being made available for voluntary conservation programs as part of the NRCS cost-share assistance program. And then I also announced the creation of a Market Based Environmental Stewardship Coordination Council." The goal of that council is to ensure the development of a sound, market based approach to eco-system services. Johanns also announced that USDA will soon offer re-enrollment and extensions of Conservation Reserve Program contracts protecting more than 28 million acres of agricultural lands. So now that the conference is over; Johanns: "Well the next step is that we have some CRP acres we need to get re-enrolled or extended. So for us, we have some real busy times ahead." Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced at the conference that the administration would soon be submitting legislation to further the potential for cooperative conservation. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.