Green Horizons

With all the other issues that have been filling up our newspapers over the past year, it’s no wonder that the 2008 Farm Bill received very little attention. The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 follows the same path as the previous Farm Bill by emphasizing the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) as a primary means to provide financial and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers who adopt conservation practices. EQIP provides financial incentives to producers to promote both agricultural production and environmental quality.

EQIP is not a new program and has changed considerably since its inception. According to the USDA NRCS Farm Bill Web site, the 2008 Farm Bill “clarifies EQIP purposes to include forest management and energy conservation, as well as practices related to organic production and fuels management.” National priorities for EQIP funding are still focused on grazing lands including animal waste systems. From a forestry perspective, the most significant change to the EQIP program is the requirement that a forest management plan is needed when the EQIP contract includes forest stand improvement, forest trails and landings, or forest slash treatment. Cost share is now available for the professional development of forest plans through a technical service provider (TSP).

The 2008 Farm Bill established two new programs that will have a dramatic impact on forest management. The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is a program that will pay a calculated rate per acre to a landowner for conservation practices that are currently established and for proposed conservation practices. To be eligible, a landowner must fill out an application identifying what practices are currently established on their farm and what practices they plan to establish in the future. The application is then ranked along with other landowners in the same land use category (for example, forest landowners are ranked with other forest landowners). The CSP is a five-year contractual arrangement with NRCS and the payment made to the landowner is based on their environmental ranking. The CSP program has a continuous sign-up, so landowners may apply at any time during the year.

Another new program that was established by the 2008 Farm Bill is the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). The BCAP has two main provisions. The first provision pays a 75 percent cost share to landowners for the establishment of a biomass crop. This biomass crop can either be herbaceous or woody; however, in either case a management plan must be established. The second provision pays a dollar for dollar match to producers on a dry weight basis for biomass sold. For example, if a biomass producer sells biomass to the local utility company at $20 per ton, the BCAP program will also pay that producer $20 per ton. The maximum match through the BCAP program is $45 per ton, and the producer can only sell to an approved facility as identified by the USDA Farm Service Agency.

For more information regarding the 2008 Farm Bill, contact your local USDA NRCS office. For more specific questions regarding forestry provisions of the 2008 Farm Bill, contact Doug Wallace, NRCS State Forester, (573) 876-0908.