1/24/04

Where & When:

Tuesday, January 27, 10 a.m.—Kasson, Minn., Diggers Bar and Grill

Thursday, January 29, 10 a.m.—St. Cloud, Minn., St. Cloud City Hall

Friday, January 30, 10 a.m.—Montevideo, Minn., Chippewa County Courthouse

Monday, February 2, 3 p.m.—Bemidji, Minn., Northland Inn

Tuesday, February 3, 10 a.m.—Fergus Falls, Minn., Bigwood Convention Center

The National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is holding the “listening sessions” listed above to get public input on their proposed rules for how they want to run the Conservation Security Program (CSP). Each listening session will start with a short presentation about the Conservation Security Program by NRCS. There will then be opportunities for citizens to comment on the USDA’s proposed rules for CSP. The listening sessions are part of the 60-day comment period that ends March 2 and are supposed to help guide and develop the final rules for CSP along with the written comments that are received.

USDA’s draft rules need fixing. A fact sheet on the CSP rules, developed by LSP’s Federal Farm Policy Committee, gives some initial concerns about USDA’s proposed rules and how to fix them. Every LSP member should be receiving a copy of the CSP fact sheet (on blue paper) through the mail this week. You can also view a pdf version of that fact sheet on our Web site at:
http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/programs_csp.html#facts (CSP Fact
Sheet #4-—CSP: Update on USDA’s Proposed Rules)

If you are planning to attend a listening session, please don’t hesitate to give Mark or Adam a call at 612-722-6377 if you want to talk over some comments to make. Please give us a call (or e-mail Mark at marks@landstewardshipproject.org) if you are planning to attend, so we have a count for each meeting. We especially need people for the Fergus Falls and Bemidji meetings.

It is important that family farmers and others concerned about conservation and sustainable agriculture attend listening sessions and make comments that promote a meaningful and useful CSP. CSP can work and be a program that makes payments to farmers based on how well they are protecting and improving the environment—specifically by conserving our nation’s natural resources (like soil and water quality) on working farmland. Properly implemented, CSP will deliver conservation benefits to society, and make sure farmers using effective conservation receive payments. But to accomplish that, we need to speak up and make USDA listen. A very important way to send that message is to attend and speak up at these listening sessions.

For more information about the USDA’s proposed rule for CSP, and suggestions for comments to make, go to http://www.landstewardship.org/programs_csp.html or call 612-722-6377.

Written comments can be e-mailed to david.mckay@usda.gov or by mail to Conservation Security Program Comments, ATTN: David McKay, NRCS Conservation Operations Division, P.O. Box 2890, Washington, D.C. 20013.