News & Notes December 2004

Two Pennsylvania Watersheds Selected to Participate in
FY05 Conservation Security Program
by Stacy Mitchell, USDA-NRCS State Communications Officer

The Schuylkill Watershed and the Lower Susquehanna-Swatara Watershed have been selected to participate in the FY05 USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Security Program (CSP). Farmers from parts of seventeen counties-6,975 farms encompassing 817,993 acres-within those watershed boundaries can apply to NRCS for the opportunity to receive payments based on the conservation work they have completed in past years.

Pennsylvania had one of the initial 18 watersheds selected in 2004 to participate in the program kick-off. Two hundred and two watersheds, at least one in each state, have been selected for the 2005 CSP program.

CSP is designed to recognize and reward farmers who are working to the highest level of conservation on their land as well as to provide an incentive to those farmers who have just begun that process. It focuses on working or production agricultural lands. Successful applicants will be eligible for a stewardship or base payment if they agree to continue maintaining the conservation practices they have implemented over the years. Maintenance payments to continue the upkeep on certain practices and incentive payments to encourage additional work are also part of the payment plan.

"Record keeping is very important to the CSP participant. The more proof you have of caring for and keeping track of your land, the more credit you can receive," said Robin Heard, NRCS State Conservationist for Pennsylvania NRCS. "Recent soil tests have been a very important part of farmer's records," added Heard.

Adams, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Chester, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Montgomery, Perry, Philadelphia, Schuylkill, and York Counties are involved in the 2 new adjacent watersheds. Part of Chester County is also eligible under the Chester-Sassafras Watershed which is mainly in Maryland. Applicants are evaluated according to specific criteria which categorize their farms into tiers for different levels of funding.

Farmers within the watersheds will be able to attend community meetings to receive more detailed information and a Self-Assessment Workbook or CD that will help them determine their own eligibility. It is important that they contact their local office for more information on those meetings. The Self-Assessment Workbook can be found on the Internet at http://csp.sc.egov.usda.gov/. For more information, contact your local NRCS office.

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