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Show UII i i iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimimiiiii i ii ii i i inn , Ilm Western Resources WRAP-UP 1J,)U IIIIIIIIIMIIIIIII"llll""ll'llllll"IIIIMIIIIIIIHIMIIIIIIIimillllllllllllllll!llli State funding increases for soil conservation By Helene C. Monberg, Vernal Express Washington Correspondent Washington-Faced with mounting erosion on croplands, 36 states increased increas-ed their funding for saving soil and N' water during the current fiscal year, as did some local governments, accords accor-ds to the National Association of Servation Districts (NACD). Wind erosion in the 10 Great Plains states alone damaged 550,000 acres during the first two months of the ,982-1983 season, an increase of 42 percent per-cent over the same period a year earlier, the U. S. Soil Conservation Service (SCS) reported recently. v "There is concern in some areas about the large amount of land that is in condition con-dition to blow," NACD reported. In reporting counties, wind erosion doubled doubl-ed or more in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and nearly doubled doubl-ed in Texas, according to NACD. fliese were among the states increasing increas-ing conservation funding. The federal government spends about $1 billion a year at the present time on soil conservation programs, NACD estimates, and state and local " funding is now approaching about 20 percent of that amount. "Despite lean budgets, state and county and city governments have appropriated ap-propriated a record $185.6 million for saving soil and water in fiscal 1983, an increase of nearly $16 million over fiscal 1982. Many state and local governments have increased ap- i propriations by 10 percent for fiscal ) H year 1983 to accelerate the programs' ' currently on-going "of conservation districts and state soil conservation agencies," said NACD, which keeps J' track of non-federal spending for this purpose. The 1983 or current fiscal . year ends on Sept. 30. JOG i; ' ter ' "State appropriations for soil con-iiti con-iiti servation totaled $96 million, up from !:r $14 million 10 years ago," it found. tidE That's a seven-fold boost in dollars in jjl r. a decade. "Local appropriations total-atjr total-atjr ed $89.6 million. The funds are used to ,ffK accelerate conservation work to speed completion of soil surveys, share the costs of farmer-installed conservation practices and help pay for state and local shares of conserva-tion conserva-tion and flood prevention projects. One-third of the appropriated funds mi will be spent for conservation district m E operations," according to NACD. ' eel FARM PROGRAMS DON'T MESH '' A primary cause for increased soil ' ' erosion has been the failure of farm 5 programs to mesh. Neil Sampson, ex-ecutive ex-ecutive vice president of NACD, ex- plained before the Joint Economic " Committee on June 22 how events out- dated agriculture programs. n(i; "In the early to mid-1970's, American agriculture went through dramatic weather fluctuations, in-' in-' credible economic swings, and developed a whole new approach to .. production. Intense commercial, an :, specialized production, in which 2 1 : acres out of 5 were grain grown for ex- port, resulted. Old soil and water con-m con-m servation techniques became as outdated out-dated as 15-horsepower tractors. rs,i Evidence of serious soil erosion, uniS farmland conversion and water waste inltf was clearly identified. The sudden re-nio!; re-nio!; emergence of those problems came as ibiii- a 'shock to Americans, who had ,siJ; relegated soil erosion to the dust-bin lan- of 'solved' problems," Sampson ing testified. Erratic economic conditions con- ; tinue to affect farmers adversely, he :W 5 pointed out. "We know that today's low farm prices, high input costs and he f generally depressed farm economy it, t we driven farmers to exploit their ,n ft in order to get the cash flow need- ach? M to stay in business during tough Dab;' limes. P1.. "B"t that should not be taken to ta- mean that a sudden reversal of IE onomic condition-a 1973-style . urn to short supplies and high me Pnces-wouid provide the cure. Under ,rte wse conditions, farmers are en- : sti? couraged to take advantage of high realt v y expanding crop acres, often rclw-" indn ngcash crops on marginal lands the f ., up nonrenewable water sup- mistf" ms' Sampson said. rt' ag?6? Was a mair expansion in sncuiture, particularly in 1972-74, Jr marginal lands went under the J',uCcording t0 MiItn E. (Bud) X g' Yuma- Col- farmer mavrl-reSident of NACD- A"061" abunH m the making because of the est u Water suPPlies in the ' "? half of the country, Mekelburg Pasp i " May 17 in his President's ter nf v in the Tuesday newslet- ) West " "Throu8h most of the one of ?hUthwest and Great PIains' il is Such ettest springs on record . " !arm "ndlt'ons tend to encourage land th!( t0 plow UP marginal, thin lWo dl may grow a decent crop for weathlr -hree years (or wnile the then "'f unusually favorable), but dam s"f er terrible erosion that ding rl armers. farms and surroun-k surroun-k communities," he warned. DISINCENTIVES FOR CONSERVATION , Dls,ncentives in the current laws relative to conservation of soil and water lead to abuse of the land, he pointed out. "As one example, we have witnessed a great deal of marginal land being plowed by speculators in-recent in-recent years with most, if not all, of the profits, coming from farm and tax programs... pro-grams... I call it farming the system," Mekelburg stated in a May 10 column. "The taxpayers were 'stuck' once the land was plowed out and are certain to be 'stuck' again when we have to do the inevitable (and expensive) rehabilitation of that land." A recent four-year study of soil and water conservation in this country made by the U. S. Department of Agriculture to comply with the Soil & Water Resources Conservation Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-192) revealed there were major erosion problems in the Palouse country (parts of Washington, Oregon and Idaho), southeastern Idaho, Texas blackland prairie, the Southern Mississippi Valley, the Corn Belt states (Iowa, Illinois and Missouri), and the potato-growing Aroostook County, Maine. The Palouse country has the highest erosion in the nation, at 50-100 tons per acre, but the premier farm state of Iowa has the worst of any state, according accor-ding to SCS. Iowa has lost up to a foot of the best top soil in the world in the past 100 years, and it is now losing 9.9 tons per acre on 26.1 million acres. Iowa's top soil measured 14-18 inches thick a century ago; now it's only 6-8 inches thick, SCS has found. The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Congress are now considering con-sidering various methods of making the basic farm programs and soil and water conservation programs mesh, particularly now that many farmers and ranchers have taken advantage of the current payment-in-kind (PIK) USDA program to idle acreage to work off grain surpluses. SCS is concluding its work on a 1982 national resources inventory which was designed "to monitor changes and trends in resources." That work is to be completed by the end of the summer, sum-mer, and it will provide new information informa-tion on erosion. NACD and the American Farmland Trust have repeatedly testified at recent Congressional Congres-sional hearings that commodity and conservation programs should be link-; link-; ed, and the Trust favors long-term retirement of the most erosive croplands. STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ON MOVE In the wake of many reports from government agencies and books like Sampson's Farmland or Wasteland indicating in-dicating the nation's cropland has the potential to blow, as it did during the duststorms of the 1930's, many state and local governments are not only enacting funding measures but also new laws to encourage soil and water conservation. And they are taking other actions to try to tie down their land and water resources. They have been strongly urged to do so by Agriculture Secretary John R. Block "there will never be enough federal or state money to buy all of the conservation measures that farmers and ranchers want and need, even where erosion is most serious" and NACD's Mekelburg "complicated problems like soil erosion... are never going to be solved by one program, or one agency, or one subcommittee of Congress. All must work together." North Dakota has been a leader in this effort. The 1983 state legislative session enacted into law legislation giving, for the first time, local taxing authority to conservation districts and authorizing a new state grants program. pro-gram. The new law was recommended recommend-ed by Gov. Allen I. Olson, R-N. Dak., who is chairman of the soil conservation conserva-tion task force in the National Governors' Gover-nors' Conference. Under this new law, $425,000 was provided by the state legislature to allow state conservation districts to apply for up to $25,000 for a two-year period to hire a soil conservation technician. The state grant funds can pay the salary and fringe benefits of the technician, and the districts are to pay for other expenses incurred by the technician. The state of Nebraska recently enacted a new law establishing a Nebraska Conservation Corporation (NCC) to provide low-interest loans (through tax-exempt bonds) to resident resi-dent landowners for the construction of permanent conservation practices on their land. Under this new law, a landowner must first contact his lending len-ding institution to secure his loan, then seek approval of the conservation practice that he intends to put on his land from the NCC Board of Directors, which is made up of one representative represen-tative from each of the districts in the state. Iowa greatly increased its funding for soil conservation during the 1983 session of its legislature. Among the legislative actions taken included the authorization of a new $1 million annual an-nual no-interest loan program to encourage en-courage farmers to install permanent soil conservation practices on their fields. The loans are to be repaid over a 10-year period, and those who obtain the loans must agree to maintain the practices for at least 20 years; and if they sell the land, future owners must maintain them. Additional technical assistance was also provided to the state's 100 soil conservation districts. Several states and the Tennessee Valley region have embarked on programs pro-grams designed to encourage farmers to plant trees on marginal lands, in an effort to keep such lands out of crop production, according to NACD. Several innovations are taking place locally in the West. The Hohokam Resource Conservation and Development Develop-ment Area Council of Phoenix has put out a water users' guide to urban irrigators ir-rigators to try to get them to cut back on water used to irrigate lawns, parks, schools, and golf courses. If the techniques techni-ques outlined in the guide were implemented, im-plemented, the Council estimates some 10-20 percent less water would be used. Current use in the Salt River Valley is estimated at 300,000 acre-feet for urban irrigation a year. Five soil conservation districts in Utah have developed a program using neutron probes and a computer to test the efficiency level of the irrigation systems in central Utah. This is a joint project of the Beaver, Delta, Juab, Millard and Twin M Soil Conservation Districts. This will improve irrigation scheduling and will save farmers on their use and cost of both water and power. ..And the Laramie River Conservation Con-servation District of Laramie, Wyo., has obtained a portable computer system which can be taken to the ranches ran-ches of cooperating owners to show them "their various conservation options" op-tions" and to finish the soil surveys and field mapping of Albany County. Wyo. The Navajo Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah is now completely com-pletely covered with oil and water conservation con-servation districts, with the formation of the Shiprock District in Northwestern Nor-thwestern New Mexico on May 23. The Spokane County Conservation District in Washington has started a firewood thinning program to regularize such cuts and to curb unauthorized cutting on private woodlands, according to NACD. |