News & Notes April 2004

CREP Expanded into the Ohio River Basin

Governor Edward G. Rendell and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman announced that the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) will be extended into the Ohio River Basin Watershed. Through this expansion, 65,000 acres of farmland have been added to this water-quality improvement program.

CREP will pay farmers for helping to reduce nutrient and sediment loading of the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, as well as surrounding waterways. When the program is fully implemented, nitrogen loads will be reduced by 458 metric tons a year, phosphorus by 10 metric tons a year and sediment loads by 12,000 metric tons a year.

The new funding will help the state enroll farmland in 16 counties - Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Fayette, Forest, Green, Lawrence, Mercer, Warren, Washington, Westmoreland and Venango.

Currently, PACD works with the United States Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency entering into contracts with eligible landowners to provide Growing Greener matching cost-share payments for CREP participants in the upper and lower Susquehanna River Watersheds. PACD has submitted a Growing Greener grant application to provide the same service to landowners in the newly expanded Ohio River Basin area.

 NACD Annual Meeting Highlights

The 58th Annual Meeting of the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) convened February 1-5, 2004, with the theme "Coming Together to Care for Our Natural Resources." The conservation leaders met to set policy, discuss key conservation issues and elect officers. Thirty district personnel from Pennsylvania attended the meeting including Pat Sueck, NACD Director and Jarrett Miller, NACD Alternate Director and PACD President.

NACD President Gary Mast of Millersburg, Ohio, likened the work of conservation in America to a puzzle, adding: "Each of us here today is a piece of the puzzle of conservation in our country. We have come together for the 58th time to make that picture of conservation a good one."

Deputy Secretary of Agriculture James Moseley highlighted some of the results of collaboration in the past year and focused on opportunities and challenges in the coming year.

"The past year has been a very productive time for conservation on America's private lands, in no small measure because of the hard work of conservation district officials, district employees, and NACD," Moseley said in his address during the Tuesday general session.

NACD's Chief Executive Officer Ernie Shea noted that NACD has "risen to new levels and accomplished things that many people thought we were incapable of doing. We have become a major force in shaping national conservation policy and public opinion."

The conference also featured concurrent track sessions intended to expand understanding of policy/programs and operations.

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