Government agency doesn’t just talk the talk…it walks the walk. I recently received a press release from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and it described three programs: the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program and the Grassland Reserve and Wetland Reserve Programs. These are fundamentally conservation programs for farmers and ranchers that have financial incentives. I asked spokesperson Clint Evans if there was any help understanding these programs and here’s his answer: “The Natural Resource Conservation Service has 39 field offices here in the state of Idaho. In those field offices we have district conservationists, soil conservationists, and range management specialists on staff that can provide technical assistance to agricultural producers and help them develop a conservation plan, help them determine what their objectives are and what their resource issues may be; whether it’s water quality, soil erosion, plant health and vigor on their range lands or the plant community if its in a declining state what they can do. Practices that can be applied to improve those particular resource issues so that the NRCS employees can provide that technical assistance. Once they have a plan developed or have a plan in mind, then we have these Farm Bill programs available. They can determine which one best fits that producer’s needs and then they can work with them and let them know what financial assistance may be available to apply a specific practice out there on their farm or ranch.”

 Pretty good, huh?