Salmon May Help Farmers Land Status Erodible Land Set-Aside Increases Sought In State

A fish issue may help farmers in the upcoming Conservation Reserve Program sign-up.

Having a nationally recognized salmon habitat near their acreage may benefit regional landowners who want to use the federal program to set aside erodible and environmentally sensitive land.

With only 21 percent of their applications accepted in the spring sign-up, and after a reduction of $31 million in annual CRP payments, Washington landowners and their congressional delegation are arming themselves to recover those lost acres this fall.

They’re taking care not to miss any opportunity to gain points to win CRP status. Even fish.

Lands affecting the salmon habitat in Washington, Idaho and Oregon could be listed as a National Conservation Priority Area, which would give area landowners a better chance at enrolling acres into CRP. Farm Service agents and National Resource Conservation Service employees from all three states are pulling together an application to designate 42 million acres as priority habitat.

“It covers a large geographic area along the Snake and Columbia rivers,” said Frank Easter, watershed planning team leader for the NRCS. “That includes a lot of things that do not apply to the Conservation Reserve Program.”

But in Washington, it could apply to about 2.43 million acres of crop land in Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Columbia, Garfield, Kittitas, Klickitat, Okanagan, Walla Walla and Yakima counties.

“We’re developing a proposal that would recognize land owners who want to improve water quality for salmon in the Pacific Northwest,” Easter said. This means idling crop land that could leach sediment, pesticides or nutrients to the water.

“I think that’s going to be real important to Washington State,” said George Wood, president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. “If this is approved, it would give us an extra 25 points.”

Washington land owners fared poorly in the last CRP sign-up because their eligibility points were fewer than those of farmers in other states.

Last week, Washington’s congressional delegation wrote a group letter reminding USDA secretary Dan Glickman that they will keep careful watch on the upcoming sign-up process. Senators Patty Murray and Slade Gorton and Reps. George Nethercutt and Doc Hastings encouraged the secretary to approve the priority area for salmon habitat protection.

By teaming with Oregon and Idaho, Washington may improve its chance for federal approval of the salmon priority area. “It gives it a little more emphasis, since it covers not just one state’s resource concerns,” said Mike Mandere, spokesman for the Washington State Farm Service Agency.

Land owners accepted for the 10-year CRP contracts plant their land with vegetative cover to cut soil erosion and provide new wildlife habitat. In exchange they are paid about $39 per acre of idled land.

The 16th sign-up is scheduled from Oct. 14 to Nov. 14. Already this sign-up differs from the last with new emphasis regarding the vegetative covers, air quality, and volcanic and organic soils.

USDA employees expect a very busy five-week sign-up period. Last spring, the FSA and NRCS processed about 5,000 applications. This fall, they plan on handling at least as many.

“We are expecting quite a bit of activity,” Mandere said. “The main reason is the popularity of the program. With sign-up 15, the results weren’t what we had expected. Those who didn’t get on will be looking to get on with sign-up 16. It’s going to be a busy time, that’s for sure.”

, DataTimes