Contact:
Katharine Burnham, (202) 415-5742, kburnham@edf.org

(Washington, DC-March 25, 2009) Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's new choice to spearhead conservation efforts at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) comes at the perfect time for land conservation programs, according to Environmental Defense Fund.

"In his years with NRCS, Dave White has demonstrated that he knows how to work with farmers and ranchers to apply farm bill conservation programs on the ground in a way that achieves important conservation objectives," said Sara Hopper, agricultural policy director for Environmental Defense Fund. "As NRCS begins to implement new conservation initiatives included in the 2008 farm bill, his extensive experience and his creative approach will be critical to ensuring these initiatives are successful in producing positive results for the environment."

The 2008 farm bill authorized a new Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) to leverage conservation program dollars with other resources to support cooperative projects that help agricultural producers effectively address local, state, or regional conservation priorities. Environmental Defense Fund championed the creation of the CCPI and is thrilled to be able to work with Mr. White on the implementation of this and other improvements the farm bill made to conservation programs administered by NRCS.

"There is much work to be done in order to ensure we get the most out of the conservation provisions of the 2008 farm bill," continued Hopper. "Dave White has the skills and approach needed to make sure conservation programs are applied effectively across the country, and we look forward to working with him."

Precision feeding improves feed efficiency by eliminating excess nutrients while maintaining or improving milk production. Matching nutrients in feed to cows’ production requirements will help to:

• Manage feed more efficiently, so that more nutrients are used for milk production and fewer nutrients are wasted. In many cases, milk production will be maintained or improved while reducing feed costs.
• Decrease excreted nitrogen and phosphorus in urine and manure by as much as 25 to 60%.

Tom Nauman, a nutritionist at Hoober Feeds of Gordonville, Pennsylvania, has seen it happen. “We have enrolled a number of our customers on a precision feeding program to improve farm profitability while benefiting the environment,” he says. “They've reduced feed costs by anywhere from 5 to 15 cents per cow per day with no negative effects on milk or milk component production.”

Reducing excess dietary phosphorus

Phosphorus is essential for strong bones and a healthy metabolism. Recommendations for phosphorus were once much higher, but several years of research have shown that milk production and reproductive performance don’t improve with higher phosphorus use. Excess phosphorus in the diet is excreted, adding to the challenge of managing manure in areas where soil phosphorus levels are high.

High quality pastures provide an important part of these cows' diet to keep them healthy and producing milk. (Photo: Courtesy Kelly O'Neill)

Herds with dietary phosphorus levels below 0.4% actually had higher production levels and pregnancy rates than those fed more phosphorus in a University of Pennsylvania study of 65 herds. This clearly demonstrates that removing excess dietary phosphorus didn’t cause problems with reproduction and production. It is likely that other management improvements also contributed to the increases in production levels and pregnancy rates.

Protein and improving nitrogen efficiency

Protein is rich in nitrogen, and it’s one of the most expensive components of dairy rations. Inefficient protein use prevents optimum production because the cow must spend metabolic energy to excrete excess nitrogen, rather than using this energy for milk production.
Some steps to improve protein efficiency include:

• Use routine forage and grain testing to determine nutrient content.
• Use more highly digestible feeds, such as higher quality forages, more finely processed corn or correctly roasted soybeans so that nutrients are used more efficiently.
• Work with a feed professional to evaluate opportunities for improvement.

Help available for dairy farmers

Dairy farmers interested in precision feeding should consult their local Natural Resources Conservation Service office. NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program provides assistance for developing and implementing a feed management plan as a part of a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan. In addition, many feed companies employ nutritionists who are listed on the NRCS Technical Registry and who are trained to help producers develop a plan specific to their herds.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation fact sheet on precision feeding

Conservation Incentives thanks Kelly O'Neill for this article. She is an Agricultural Policy Analyst at Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a non-profit organization and CCI partner that works to improve the environmental health of the Bay.

Federally threatened bog turtles (Glyptemys (=Clemmys) muhlenbergii ) need fens, wet meadows and other shallow-water wetlands, but this habitat is disappearing from the Northeast. Landowners interested in converting overgrown thickets into sunny, open wetlands can find guidance in a new CCI publication: Restoring Your Wetlands for Bog Turtles and Other Wildlife: An Introduction for Landowners [PDF].

Illustrated with colorful photos, the guide describes the restoration process—which may include carefully managed grazing—and shows butterflies, wildflowers and other species that share these wetlands with bog turtles. Landowner resources and information sources are also listed.

Online ecosystem services articles

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution explores the role of ecosystems services in conservation and resource management in its February 2009 issue. Abstracts and pdfs for the five articles, an essay and a guest editorial are all available free of charge online.  This journal is published by the Ecological Society of America.

Conservation funds available for Alabama landowners

Alabama landowners can get up to 64% of cost-share funding for longleaf pine restoration and enhancement through the state’s Landowner Incentives Program. This federal grant program is made available through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in partnership with state wildlife agencies.  The deadline is close—April 1—but the application process is simple: a two-page form.

LIP funds can be used toward seedlings and plantings, chemical site preparation, site-preparation burns, native grass restoration and non-native species control. As well as improving habitat for the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) and Eastern indigo snake (Drymarchon corais couperi)  and other rare species, game animals like wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) also benefit.

For a LIP application, contact Traci George at (334) 353-0503, or Traci.George@dcnr.alabama.gov. For more information about LIP visit www.outdooralabama.com/research-mgmt/landowner/lip/.

Rangelands also widely overlap with grouse habitat. Longtime Idaho Statesman environmental reporter Rocky Barker says a sage-grouse listing could ignite a controversy with ranchers reminiscent of the one with loggers when the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) was listed in the late 1980s.

Fortunately a repeat of that tempest isn’t inevitable. In recent years, CCI has been working alongside a wide range of stakeholders to explore ways to halt and reverse the sage-grouse’s decades-long decline while also helping landowners avoid severe impacts if the bird is listed. One possible pre-listing conservation measure that offers legal assurances for landowners—Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances—was discussed in our January newsletter.

Greater sage-grouse range map. Click on map for larger view. (Source: USGS)

There’s no doubt that greater sage-grouse have drastically declined from their historic numbers. The bird is entirely gone from five states that it once inhabited. Several factors have caused its decline: conversion of habitat to cropland; invasion of non-native species such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum); oil and gas development and overgrazing. Fences contribute directly to bird mortality through collisions and indirectly by helping create uniform—or homogeneous—habitat that sage-grouse and other species avoid.

Wind energy and sage-grouse

Wind turbines and transmission towers can also render habitat unsuitable for sage-grouse. These ground-dwelling birds evolved to avoid tall vertical structures, probably because that’s where avian predators perch.

In 2008, CCI joined with National Audubon Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, the Union of Concerned Scientists and wind energy interests to found the American Wind Wildlife Institute. This new organization is now working to locate and design wind power development to minimize the impacts on sage-grouse and other sensitive wildlife. This approach could become a model for averting future conflicts with wildlife when other new energy sources and technologies emerge.

Habitat restoration evaluation

Habitat restoration is also important for increasing sage-grouse populations. Although the first goal is to avoid or minimize adverse impacts on existing habitat, that’s not always possible. In some situations, unavoidable impacts require mitigation that restores or enhances potential habitat elsewhere. CCI is working with the Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative (CSI), which hopes to steer mitigation funding to landowners willing to have such activities undertaken on their land.

Wyoming sagebrush habitat. (Photo: iStockphoto)

A practical challenge for effective habitat mitigation is the need to establish an accepted methodology to evaluate the tradeoffs between the loss or degradation of habitat at a development site and the restoration or enhancement of habitat at a mitigation site. CSI held a workshop that produced a proposed habitat evaluation methodology, which is now being tested in Wyoming, Idaho and California. Although we’re not directly involved at these demonstration sites, CCI is conferring regularly with those who are doing the testing.

Wildlife-friendly fencing and corridors

The Wildlife Corridors Initiative recently launched by the Western Governors’ Association seeks to galvanize support and funding to identify and conserve key corridors used by wildlife for migration and dispersal among major protected areas, as well as potential range shifts in response to climate change. This initiative could advance sage-grouse conservation by discouraging habitat fragmentation. We’ve focused on opportunities to further wildlife corridors using Farm Bill 2008 programs and outlined them in our February 2009 report.

One relatively easy and inexpensive opportunity for landowners to help greater-sage-grouse is making simple changes in fencing. A brief CCI paper discusses wildlife-friendly fencing.

Michael Bean
CCI Senior Attorney, Wildlife Program Director

On January 22, 2009, the USDA Farm Service Agency and the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources announced approval of the Hawaii Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. Like all CREPs, it is a state-federal partnership program that provides resources for landowners who agree to improve water quality and restore wildlife habitat under long-term contracts. But there’s more: Hawaii’s CREP has innovative measures to address state-specific needs, like protecting the islands’ limited and vulnerable freshwater supply and biodiversity-rich coral reefs.

Farmers and ranchers on the six main islands—Hawaii, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kauai and Oahu—can enroll up to 15,000 acres in 15-year contracts. They get funding to restore native forests along mountain streams, wetlands and other rare native habitats, like dryland forests. A major focus of the new CREP is unique provisions to address invasive, non-native species that imperil Hawaii’s native species. Other CREP goals are to increase groundwater recharge and to help protect Hawaii’s fragile near-shore coral reefs from polluted runoff. 

Hawaii is the nation’s endangered species capital, with 329 species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Many of the state’s endangered and other rare plants and animals are endemic—found nowhere else on the planet—and many live primarily on private lands. One is the endangered state bird—the nene or Hawaiian goose (Branta (=Nesochen) sandvicensis)—which nests and forages for food in wetlands, riparian areas and farm and ranchland pastures.

The state is also a global hotspot for introduced or non-native species. After millennia of isolation, Hawaiian species lack the natural defenses to fend off non-native species like aggressive feral hogs. The CREP includes special provisions that encourage landowners to install fencing and take other management measures to control non-natives.

Hawaii's new Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program is the first in the nation to address coral reef conservation. (Photo: Robert Hunt/iStockphoto)

The new CREP also addresses Hawaii’s water quality and quantity challenges. The state has a limited supply of freshwater. Small, seasonal streams run straight down steep, forested mountainsides, across the lowlands and out to sea. Destruction of riparian habitat and deforestation on steep mountainsides leave the islands vulnerable to heavy mudflows and nutrient-laden runoff during storms. An estimated one million tons a year of sediment are deposited in Hawaii’s marine waters, damaging near-shore coral reefs that harbor diverse fish and marine life. The CREP aims to restore wetlands and riparian vegetation, which will reduce erosion and filter and slow surface water runoff before it enters streams. This will allow more rainwater to seep into Hawaii’s groundwater, recharging freshwater supplies.

To meet Hawaii’s unique and important natural resource needs, Environmental Defense Fund worked with Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, USDA Farm Service Agency, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and local farmers and ranchers to help design and gain approval of this pioneering CREP. After six years, Hawaii’s CREP is now being launched.

The program will invest substantial state and federal resources—up to $53.6 million from USDA and $13.4 million from Hawaii. That’s an exciting opportunity for Hawaii’s farmers and ranchers to improve water quality, restore critical wildlife habitat, increase the freshwater supply and help protect Hawaii’s imperiled coral reefs.

For more information, see the USDA Hawaiian CREP fact sheet [PDF] or the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources press release [PDF].

Terry Noto
CCI Consulting Attorney
 

But what about investment in green infrastructure–projects that restore ecosystems, conserve wildlife and enhance water quality on working landscapes? Should federal stimulus dollars be spent on these forms of green infrastructure?

Yes. Conservation projects on farms, ranches and forests can indeed stimulate the economy, particularly in rural areas that are disproportionately suffering from the downturn. Incentives funding that implements conservation practices and builds infrastructure can provide environmental benefits and employ skilled workers. To plant riparian buffer strips, construct wetlands that filter agricultural runoff and install water-conserving drip irrigation equipment, we need workers for construction, earth moving, planting vegetation and controlling invasive species. A large backlog of shovel-ready projects could be implemented in short order as evidenced by the large number of applications that await funding from Farm Bill conservation programs.

Chesapeake Bay.
(Photo: Terence McArdle/iStockphoto)

One region that could make good use of stimulus spending is the Chesapeake Bay’s six-state watershed. Water flows over the 64,000-square-mile watershed into a natural resource worth $1 trillion to our national economy, but this ecological and economic treasure is imperiled by poor water quality. Conservation projects on farmland are the most cost-effective approach to cleaning up the Bay. Farmers and other landowners are helping and want to do more to contribute to clean water, but they can’t do this big job by themselves.

CCI is working to help Bay watershed states and their farmers achieve a clean and healthy Bay in ways that work for the Bay and work for farmers. One critical piece is creating and restoring areas that soak up excess nutrients that run off the land, like forested buffers and wetlands. The Bay states set a goal of planting over 300,000 acres of forested buffers and over 100,000 acres of wetlands by 2010, although the goals and dates are now under revision. We estimate that $50 million of stimulus spending could plant 15,000 acres of forested buffers and restore 5,000 acres of wetlands—and employ 1,000 workers to do the job.

Now imagine how these numbers could be scaled up by implementing the same shovel-ready conservation practices in other impaired watersheds across the U.S. Conservation-minded landowners are volunteering to conserve and restore our natural resources, and newly unemployed workers are looking for jobs. With federal stimulus dollars, we can help both.

Eric Holst
CCI Managing Director