Northey: Funds available for water quality and flood prevention projects

During the legislative session, the Iowa Environmental Council partnered with the Agribusiness Association of Iowa, Conservation Districts of Iowa, and the Iowa Pork Producers Association to secure renewed funding for soil and water conservation projects through Iowa’s Watershed Improvement Review Board (WIRB).  The legislature responded with $1 million to support important conservation work.  Now, those funds are being made available to communities across Iowa.

From a press release by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship:

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey is encouraging eligible groups to apply for grants to support projects that will improve water quality or help prevent flooding in the state.  The Legislature provided $1 million to the Watershed Improvement Review Board to support qualifying projects.

Funds are available to local watershed improvement committees, soil and water conservation districts, public water supply utilities, county conservation boards, cities and counties.

These funds will support projects that address specific water quality problems or that can help reduce flooding in our state,” Northey said.  “Protecting and improving water quality is central to the work of the Department and these funds support projects that make documented improvements in our state’s water quality or address potential flooding.”

Projects eligible for funding include, but are not limited to, those addressing agricultural runoff and drainage, flood prevention, stream bank erosion, municipal discharge, storm water runoff, unsewered communities, industrial discharge and livestock runoff.

Each project can request up to $100,000 in funding over three years.

Potential applicants should review the RFA in full at www.iowaagriculture.gov/IWIRB.asp to make sure their proposal qualifies.

All applications are due on Friday, July 27, 2012 and will be reviewed Friday, August 17, 2012 by the Watershed Improvement Review Board.  The Board is comprised of representatives from agriculture, drinking water and wastewater utilities, environmental organizations, agribusiness, the conservation community along with two state senators and two state representatives.  A funding announcement is expected to be made in September.

Application materials can be downloaded from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship website at www.iowaagriculture.gov/IWIRB.asp.  To receive more information or ask questions, contact Jerry Neppel at 515-281-3599.

New action alert: Help Iowa’s Senators make the case for conservation

ACTION ALERT – UPDATED

Update:  (6/19/2012) The U.S. Senate is expected to act quickly on many farm bill amendments, including one to re-establish the critical conservation compliance – insurance subsidy connection.

The name of the amendment has changed, and is now the Chambliss conservation compliance amendment #2438.

In addition to e-mailing Senators Grassley and Harkin about this legislation, we urge you to call today:

• Sen. Harkin’s office:  (202) 224-3254
• Sen. Grassley’s office:  (202) 224-3744

Here’s our previous alert on this topic before this update:

This action alert is part of our continuing special coverage of the 2012 farm bill.

Last week, the U.S. Senate began considering the 2012 farm bill, and one of Iowa’s two Senators, Tom Harkin, made his support of a critical conservation measure public:

“I support crop insurance.  But I do believe that there ought to be conservation compliance along with crop insurance,” he told reporter Clark Kauffman.

“The more taxpayer dollars that can go to conservation, the better off everyone is—the better off farmers are, the better off our society is, the better off our country is,” Harkin added.

The Iowa Environmental Council, other conservation groups, and people from across the country have been calling for a connection between taxpayer-funded insurance subsidies and conservation practices all year, and Harkin’s comments are a sign those calls are being heard in Washington.

THIS IS GOOD PROGRESS, BUT WE CAN’T STOP NOW

Although the Senate Agriculture Committee included some limits on insurance subsidies for farmers who plow native prairies or grasslands for the first time, the current bill does not include badly needed protections for wetlands and highly erodible soil.

Further, the agribusiness lobby would prefer that substantially increased insurance subsidies continue with no strings attached, and are working tirelessly to advance that position.

Your action is needed now because you are in a unique position to help these needed conservation protections become law.  Both of Iowa’s Senators have been strong advocates for reform of federal farm programs, and both could be critical voices of support for these additional conservation practices.

But Senators Harkin and Grassley need to hear from you.  They need to know Iowans expect more than “no strings attached” farm subsidies that contradict efforts to conserve our state’s soil and water.

Without conservation standards, federally subsidized crop insurance has the unintended consequence of encouraging production on marginal lands.  Farmers who want to fulfill their responsibility for good stewardship of the land are at a disadvantage, because poor stewards are allowed to cut corners and reap the same public benefits.

You can support needed conservation action by contacting Senators Harkin and Grassley and encouraging them to support the Cardin Conservation Compliance Amendment.  To take action, fill out the Senators’ contact forms.  You can personalize our sample message, below, or write your own to explain why farm conservation is important to you.

Contact Senator Harkin: http://harkin.senate.gov/contact_opinion.cfm

Contact Senator Grassley:  http://www.grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm

OUR SUGGESTED MESSAGE

(We encourage you to personalize this message to explain why you think conservation protections belong in the next farm bill.)

Dear Senator:

Iowa is fortunate to be represented by two U.S. Senators who are both strong advocates for needed reforms to farm programs that will protect farmers,  taxpayers, and Iowa’s natural resources.  As the Senate debates the farm bill this week, I encourage you to take another step to protect the public interest by supporting the Cardin Conservation Compliance Amendment (SA-2219).

This important amendment will help ensure taxpayer dollars protect natural resources while providing the safety net farmers need.  Many Iowa farmers work hard to be good stewards of the land and water, but they face a competitive disadvantage when poor stewards can cut corners and receive the same public benefits.  Without your action, crop and revenue insurance payments will continue to incentivize farming on marginal lands where intensive crop production is neither environmentally nor economically sustainable in the long run.

As Congress works to design a farm safety net that meets the needs of today’s farmers, it’s important that policies to protect the long-term health and productivity of Iowa’s landscape do not fall behind.  Now is the time to restore the link between conservation compliance and subsidies for crop insurance.  I hope you will support efforts to incorporate this reform into the final farm bill.

Sincerely,

[your name]

Contact Senator Harkin: http://harkin.senate.gov/contact_opinion.cfm

Contact Senator Grassley:  http://www.grassley.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Encourage Governor Branstad to support clean water in Iowa’s rivers and lakes

ACTION ALERT

Second update:  Governor Branstad signed the bill and authorized the funds!

Update:  An issue with this post that prevented the links from functioning properly has been corrected.

Governor Branstad is currently considering whether to sign legislation funding two important programs supporting clean water and recreation in Iowa’s rivers and lakes through the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund.

Because the Governor is expected to act on this legislation as soon as Thursday, now is the time to encourage him to approve appropriations for two key programs:

• $1 million to remove dangerous low-head dams and establish water trails on Iowa’s rivers, and
• $6 million to support Iowa’s public lake restoration program for sediment control and other activities that improve lake recreation and habitat.

If the Governor says yes to supporting clean water in Iowa’s rivers and lakes, he will be saying:

• Yes to supporting recreational resources that Iowans use and enjoy.  Lake and river improvement projects focus on making public uses of lakes and rivers better by improving water quality and enhancing public access and safety.
• Yes to providing Iowans jobs and economic opportunities.  Iowa State University research has attributed billions of dollars in annual economic impact and thousands of jobs to lake and river recreation.

Members of the Iowa House and Senate came together to support these critical programs to protect and enhance lakes and rivers all across the state.  You can encourage the Governor to do so as well by taking action now.

This action alert is different from those we normally send because you will need to manually fill out the Governor’s feedback form.  You can access the form with the link below.  When you are required to select a topic for your message to the Governor, we suggest choosing “Natural Resources/Conservation.”

The Governor’s feedback form is located at https://governor.iowa.gov/constituent-services/register-opinion

SUGGESTED MESSAGE TO GOVERNOR BRANSTAD

(We encourage you to personalize this message to explain why you think good stewardship of lakes and rivers is important.)

Dear Governor Branstad:

This year, members of the Iowa House and Senate came together to support two important appropriations (in SF 2316) to improve water quality and protect Iowa’s rivers and lakes, including:

$1 million to remove dangerous low-head dams and establish water trails on Iowa’s rivers, and
$6 million to support Iowa’s public lake restoration program.

During Soil and Water Conservation Week earlier this year, you appropriately recognized the many benefits good environmental stewardship brings to Iowa.  These appropriations represent significant progress on Iowa’s commitment to caring for the state’s natural resources, and I encourage you to sign them into law right away.

Sincerely,
[your name]

SEND YOUR MESSAGE NOW:

The Governor’s feedback form is located at https://governor.iowa.gov/constituent-services/register-opinion

Senate Agriculture Committee completes its version of the 2012 farm bill

The United States Senate Agriculture Committee completed its proposal for the 2012 farm bill on April 26.  The bill will now move forward for consideration by the full Senate, possibly later this month.

The farm bill provides billions of dollars in funding for conservation programs on agricultural land, and for Iowa, a state with more than 26 million acres of cultivated cropland, no other single piece of legislation plays as large a role for soil and water conservation.

Iowa also has an important role to play in the writing of the farm bill because the state’s two Senators, Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin, are both influential members of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

This year’s farm bill debate is especially significant because Congress is trying to reduce federal spending in many areas.  The proposal the Agriculture Committee has now approved will save $23 billion over 10 years, but that includes a $6.37 billion dollar cut to farm conservation programs over the same time period.

OVERALL REACTION SHOWS MIXED PROGRESS

The need for cost savings has pushed Congress to look for ways to streamline and reform farm bill programs, and reaction to progress in the Senate Agriculture Committee’s methods for doing so has been mixed.

Craig Cox, senior vice president for Agriculture and Natural Resources of the Environmental Working Group, questioned whether Congress is working toward “real” reforms.  Cox criticized the proposal for shifting additional resources to protecting farmers’ bottom lines while cutting conservation and anti-hunger programs.

“A farm bill that cuts programs for the hungry and the environment to help finance a new entitlement program and unlimited insurance subsidies for the largest and most profitable farm operations should not be called a ‘reform’ bill,” Cox said.

But Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), was more optimistic, praising what NSAC called “historic reforms to commodity subsidies.”

“We applaud the Senate Agriculture Committee for including common sense rules for commodity payments and ending years of abuse by closing program loopholes,” Hoefner said.  “Thanks to Senator Grassley’s tireless leadership, the Committee was able to make sure that hardworking farmers—not mega farms and absentee investors—are the key beneficiaries of farm programs.”

SOME PROGRESS ON ‘CONSERVATION COMPLIANCE’

In 1985, American taxpayers and farmers entered into a contract to provide a safety net for the country’s food producers in return for protection of critical natural resources.  Known as “conservation compliance,” this policy requires farmers to follow conservation plans that limit soil erosion on highly erodible land as well as preventing destruction of wetlands and native grasslands.  Farmers who willfully violate their conservation plans risk losing taxpayer funded benefits.

Taxpayer-funded subsidies for crop insurance are not currently linked to conservation compliance, and because insurance premium subsidies are becoming an increasingly important part of the taxpayer-funded safety net for farmers, many conservation groups including the Iowa Environmental Council believe connecting the subsidies to basic conservation expectations is critical.

The Senate took one important step toward this goal by adopting a nationwide “Sodsaver” provision protecting grasslands and native prairies which have not yet been farmed.  The provision would reduce available crop insurance subsidies by half and prohibit other farm program payments for any native prairie or grassland a farmer puts into production.

“By agreeing to a nationwide ‘Sodsaver’ provision… the Senate Agriculture Committee made sure that taxpayer dollars are not subsidizing the destruction of native grass and prairie lands,” said Hoefner.  “These lands are diminishing at a rapid rate and protecting them provides ranching opportunities and economic, environmental, and recreational benefits to rural communities.”

Protections for native grasslands are only part of the action Congress must take on conservation compliance.  The Iowa Environmental Council will continue efforts with partners to include these protections in the final farm bill.

“The Committee has acted to limit insurance subsidies for farmers who put native prairie or grasslands into production, and we are hopeful they will also apply this standard in cases where farmers drain wetlands or farm highly erodible land without sufficient conservation practices,” said Susan Heathcote, Iowa Environmental Council water program director.

“In all three of these areas, taxpayers should not help pay insurance premiums for practices that degrade the long-term health of our natural resources,” she added.  “We hope Congress will recognize the need for these common-sense conservation protections.”

CONSERVATION RESERVE PROGRAM LIKELY TO SHRINK

The Senate Agriculture Committee also agreed to reduce the number of acres protected by the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) from 32 million to 25 million acres nationwide.

Conservation experts have argued that such a reduction only recognizes a decline in protected land that is already happening because of current market conditions.  As Heathcote wrote in a Des Moines Register op-ed in January, “farming is a business, and with recent record-breaking corn and soybean prices, farmers have a strong financial incentive to put expiring CRP land back under the plow.”

Other changes to the CRP program approved in the Senate bill will help counter some of the impact of declining enrollment, including:

• doubling the funding for the CRP Transition Incentives Program, which helps to incentivize the sale or lease of land leaving the CRP program to a beginning or socially disadvantaged farmer who agrees to manage the land with a conservation plan.
• allowing grasslands to be enrolled in CRP under certain conditions
• relaxing some restrictions on livestock grazing on CRP land for beginning farmers

FOR MORE INFORMATION

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is providing extensive analysis of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s version of the farm bill.  See this post for more information on Sodsaver and conservation compliance, and this post for information on other conservation programs, including more details on CRP.

As Governor lauds conservation, state investment lags behind

As Iowa Governor Terry Branstad attends events across the state this week celebrating efforts to conserve soil and water resources, Iowans will be looking at how the Governor’s stated support lines up with his recommendations for state government’s action on conservation issues, said Marian Riggs Gelb, executive director of the Iowa Environmental Council.

“During the economic downturn, the state tightened its belt in many areas, including conservation funding,” Gelb said. “but Iowa has a long and growing list of troubled waterways in need of conservation protection.  With the economy improving, the time has come to renew our commitment to the health of our natural resources.”

Soil and Water Conservation Week, set by the Governor’s proclamation, comes as the Iowa legislature is negotiating on several key conservation budget priorities, including whether to resume funding for the Watershed Improvement Review Board (WIRB), a state panel that provides funding for local water quality improvement projects across the state.

“When it comes to getting conservation practices in place on the ground, Iowa generally relies on individual landowners and local groups to volunteer to take on water quality work in their watersheds,” Gelb said.  “If Iowa does not invest in programs to support these efforts, the state’s basic strategy for conservation falters.”

WIRB makes grants to help local groups solve pollution problems in communities across the state. Because projects receive funding from multiple sources, $8.4 million in grants awarded in the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years helped launch more than $34 million in water quality projects across the state, including at Lake Rathbun, one of the stops on the Governor’s Soil and Water Conservation Week tour.

“The Watershed Improvement Review Board supports exactly the type of work the Governor is championing this week, yet under his watch, funding for the program has disappeared,” Gelb said.

In fact, after five years of steady investment at $5 million each year and a reduction to $2 million in 2011, last year the legislature provided no additional funds for WIRB grants.

This lack of support for watershed projects comes at a time when state commitments to conservation and natural resources priorities are suffering more generally, even after 63 percent of Iowans demonstrated their support for our natural resources by passing the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund in 2010.

Declining investment means the state employs about half the number of soil technicians as it once did to help design and implement needed conservation practices.  A report this year by the Iowa Policy Project found that, adjusted for inflation, funding for 7 of 10 key state water quality programs declined about one third over the last decade.

“In his conservation week proclamation, the Governor himself recognized how protecting Iowa’s natural resources ‘reduces flooding and water impairments, enhances wildlife, protects the state’s tax base and promotes the health, safety and public welfare of the people of Iowa.’” Gelb said.

“Governor Branstad is setting the right tone about the importance of conservation this week, and we hope he will encourage the legislature to join him in committing necessary resources to this important work,” she added.

For more information on the Governor’s attendance of a field day recognizing the work of the Rathbun Land & Water Alliance, check out this flier about the event (pdf) or the Alliance’s website.