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News & Notes
December 2007
Energy Independence in PA - What
Conservation Districts Can Do
On November 9, 2007 the PACD Executive Board discussed
and approved a PACD energy paper entitled, "Achieving Pennsylvania's
Energy Independence Goals While Strengthening Conservation in Pennsylvania
- The Critical Role of Pennsylvania's Conservation Districts."
PACD will distribute the proposal to the Pennsylvania General Assembly
in the near future. Our objective is to inform legislators of the importance
conservation planning will play in renewable resource initiatives. Please
consider forwarding this information to your elected leaders expressing
your support of funding to conservation districts to provide technical
assistance as Pennsylvania embarks in new energy programs. The PACD
energy paper follows. It is also available in its entirety on the PACD
website at: http://www.pacd.org/about/legactivities/update07.htm#15.
Achieving Pennsylvania's Energy Independence Goals
While Strengthening Conservation in Pennsylvania
The Critical Role of Pennsylvania's Conservation Districts
IMPLICATIONS FOR CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT
- Conservation District services will be needed to provide technical
assistance to keep pace with increased corn production including training
and education pertaining to conservation practices.
- Increased corn production will add to nutrient pollution if not
accompanied by conservation measures, and should be seen as an opportunity
to greatly expand cover crops and support for other agricultural best
management practices. A statewide program to promote no-till and cover
crops on farmland will facilitate additional erosion control.
- As biofuel plants are built and operating in PA, distiller's grain
will become available for animal feed. Nutrient management technical
assistance will become more crucial and conservation districts are
in a position to assist the agricultural community with those needs.
- Increasing emphasis on bio-fuel production will alter farm operations
and increase the need for updated and improved conservation plans.
A number of federal and state programs already require farmers to
have a current conservation plan or an agricultural erosion and sediment
control plan to meet the program's standards. Unfortunately, USDA
and state agencies have not been able to provide farmers with the
technical assistance necessary to help farmers meet these needs because
of decreased funding and staffing.
- Alternative energy sources such as windmill construction will necessitate
consideration of additional environmental impacts such as erosion
and sedimentation.
- New technologies to generate energy from combustion, digestion,
and gasification from manure and other feedstocks need to be accompanied
by proper nutrient management.
STRATEGIES
In order to achieve energy independence goals there is
a need to expand the technical assistance capacity within Pennsylvania's
Conservation Districts commensurate with the need to develop biofuel
and alternative energy production that also protects soil, water, and
air resources. The goal of this strategy is to position Districts to
deliver new technical assistance necessary to enhance the energy efficiencies
within agriculture. The following funding is needed each year for the
next five years.
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Conservation Planning:
- Idaho has a successful website technical assistance system
designed to assist farmers in meeting their "core"
natural resource planning requirements for state and federal
programs through web based technical assistance. PA could emulate
the Idaho program focusing on a website allowing PA farmers
to develop conservation plan components consistent with conservation
planning requirements.
A Conservation website to produce and maintain an online technical
assistance system will cost approximately $700,000 over a 5 year
period.
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| -- Phase 1 planning and development (year 1) |
$250,000
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| -- Phase 2 implementation (year 2 & 3) |
$250,000
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| --Web site maintenance & Support (years 2-5) |
$200,000
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- Technical assistance to complete conservation plans begun
with Web-based program (40 conservation planners needed
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$2 million
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| Conservation Planning Total |
$ 2,700,000
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Other Technical Assistance:
- Increase adoption of conservation tillage on cropland, with
the goal of at least 50% of producers transitioning to no-till
and a cover crop program by 2012.
- Deliver technical assistance to producers to improve the energy
efficiency of their operations, including field and machinery
operations, crop and livestock production inputs, and heating,
cooling and lighting of buildings; requires hiring of new multi-county
staff.
- Assist producers in adopting sound cropping systems to provide
feedstocks for biofuel production, such as switchgrass for cellulosic
ethanol production and soybeans for biodiesel.
- Training and other education for conservation and nutrient
management assistance for the farming community.
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| Other Technical Assistance Total
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$2,300,000
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| TOTAL |
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