Glickman Pledges Changes In Crp Farmers Encouraged After Eastern Washington Visit

During his visit to the Tri-Cities on Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman got a coating of dust on his shoes and pants.

He also heard an earful from Eastern Washington farmers and admitted changes were needed for the next sign-up of the Conservation Reserve Program.

By touring two farms south of Kennewick, the secretary fulfilled his promise to come and see the CRP land that the U.S. Department of Agriculture rejected in the most recent sign-up.

The CRP, a 10-year federal program, pays farmers an average of $39 an acre each year to leave some of their land idle with a cover of grass. The purpose is to fight erosion, improve water quality and help wildlife.

Washington farmers use the program to retire highly erodible, less productive land. Of all the major participating states this spring, Washington fared the worst in the sign-up with only 21 percent of its CRP land accepted. For some farmers, it was a bitter pill since Oregon and Idaho each had acceptance rates of about 80 percent.

More than 100 farmers filled John Christiansen’s equipment shop Thursday to find out why, vent frustrations and decide if they should count on getting back into the program through the fall sign-up.

They wanted to know if the powdery Washington soil would be given more weight by the USDA now that Glickman had seen it for himself.

“A lot of the soil here is not highly erodible in the context that there is a lot of it, but it’s highly blowable,” he said, acting surprised. “This soil blows.”

As if to prove his point, a few minutes later a whirlwind loaded with dust blew into the meeting space. It rushed over the secretary who sat in a wide doorway with his back to golden fields of cut wheat.

“It looks like a Kansas tornado,” said Glickman, a former Kansas congressman.

The meeting unfolded amiably, with a number of farmers standing to share their stories and worries about having to farm land they’d left fallow for the past decade.

Bob Joy, representing the Washington State Grange, held his cowboy hat in hand when he asked the secretary why farmers should hope to be readmitted to the program this fall.

“What guarantees do they have that the 16th sign-up is going to be any different than the 15th, so they can go ahead without putting a plow in the ground?”

“I certainly hope that a lot of people don’t tear up their land,” Glickman said later. “They’ve got to make their own judgments on it. But I think a lot of this land is going to get in.”

Though he couldn’t explain specific changes to the program, Glickman guaranteed a different CRP this fall, particularly in the area of assigning eligibility points for issues like soil quality, and proximity to bodies of water and wildlife habitats.

“I’m here to tell you that we will make improvements in the next sign-up,” Glickman said. “We’ve learned a few things here.”

Glickman said the new requirements will be released in September, four to five weeks early. Farmers who are admitted in the sign-up will be able to collect almost immediately, with extra payments for the few months before the 10-year program officially starts.

Some farmers asked what went wrong this spring to cost the state about $30 million in CRP money.

While Glickman wouldn’t say the USDA made mistakes, he conceded, “Obviously we didn’t do it perfectly. Hopefully, we’ll come up with a 16th sign-up that addresses a lot of the concerns here.”

The secretary had a chance to walk through land that had been rejected in the spring sign-up when he stopped at Larry Wilkerson’s farm a few miles away.

Wilkerson had 2,000 acres in the CRP that will expire this fall. All 2,000 were rejected in the spring sign-up.

As Glickman and his entourage hiked through the ground cover of knee-high grass, he looked down and asked Wilkerson if farming the land would create a dust problem.

“It would blow,” the fourth-generation wheat farmer replied. “If it wasn’t that way, I wouldn’t have put it into the CRP.”

After meeting with the secretary, farmers agreed he left them with good news.

Jerry Snyder of Adams County said was pleased but guardedly optimistic. “I know there’s going to be a change,” he said. “But I didn’t hear specifically what (would be different).”

Other farmers are confident the secretary will keep his word and their lot will improve in the fall.

“I’m optimistic at this point,” said Joy, the Grange representative. “But if he has to come back and have another one of these meetings in six months, it won’t be quite so friendly.”

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