USDA Publishes Interim Final Rule on Responsibilities of State Technical Committees: Public Comments Due January 26, 2009

Notice of 60-day Public Comment Period on Rule Published in Federal Register

ATHENS, December 2, 2008—USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS) Chief  Arlen Lancaster today announced the release of the interim final rule for State Technical Committees, which amended requirements regarding the composition and responsibilities of these advisory committees nationwide. 

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Georgia Adds 598 Acres to USDA’S Wetlands Reserve Program

More than two million acres enrolled, nationwide, surpassing national goal

ATHENS, November 3, 2008—USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Conservationist James E. Tillman, Sr., announced today that in 2008, Georgia landowners have enrolled an additional 598 acres of land into the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wetland Reserve Program (WRP). To date, more than two million acres have been enrolled in WRP, nationally, helping exceed the Federal government’s 3-year goal of increasing the number and size of America’s wetlands.

The Thomas’s had many conservation concerns with the land itself, their woods – which has a creek running through it, and their ponds. “This was a cotton field when we bought it. We had erosion problems, there was the runoff; the land was in terraces – that’s why the pond would stay full because of the runoff from the cotton fields.

Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) helps Horse Farmers

This is a farm moving toward conservation. Their success is not in the past but in the future. “We signed up for EQIP and we’re going to put some cross fencing in that big pasture. We have only signed up to do the first pasture in the front and we are going to divide it and we’re going to put the well down there and we’re going to seed everything,” said Moira McCracken.