Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA will provide nearly $42.3 million in additional funding to 14 states to improve water quality, increase water supply, decrease soil erosion, and improve fish and wildlife habitat while creating jobs in rural communities as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

“This next wave of funding will give even more people opportunities to conserve our nation’s natural resources while boosting local economies,” Vilsack said. “The overwhelming response we received with the first wave of Recovery Act funding shows the assistance that people and communities need, and we look forward to helping them deliver it by investing in improving local watershed projects.”

Through ARRA, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has a key role in creating jobs for Americans in areas of our nation that are most impacted economically and by natural disaster. By working closely with local community sponsors to identify projects that are ready for implementation, NRCS will direct the technical and financial assistance available toward improving public safety and the environment as well as relieving stress on local economies through job creation and retention.

ARRA funds for these projects will be used for conservation practices to achieve a healthy environment through conserving water and improving irrigation efficiency, controlling soil erosion and installing filter strips, flood-proofing homes, enhancing stream corridor and floodplain functions, constructing small flood control dams, and improving wildlife and aquatic habitat.

The jobs ARRA creates in the private sector will enhance the rate of restoration and improve watershed management so that the impacts of flooding will decline and communities are safer, sooner.

USDA is directing technical and financial assistance available through this funding toward projects that are ready to begin and that will relieve stress on local economies through the creation of jobs. NRCS has worked closely with sponsors to identify projects that are ready for immediate implementation.

State Project Funding
AL Camp Branch $175,000
AL Northeast Yellow River $255,000
CA Lower Silver Creek $9,000,000
IA Bear Creek $755,000
IN Honey Creek $3,300,000
KS Lyons Creek $1,248,000
MS Ellison Creek $1,875,000
MS Little and Upper Tallahatchie $2,200,000
MS Town Creek $930,000
MS Yazoo-Arkabutla Creek $1,000,000
MS Yazoo-Upper Piney Creek $875,000
MS Yazoo-Upper Skuna River $750,000
MT Lower Birch Creek $527,000
NE Gering Valley $2,200,000
SC South Darlington $1,040,000
KS Wet Walnut No. 5 $199,000
KY North Fork of Little River $725,000
NM Prop Canyon and Tributaries $1,200,000
NM Santa Cruz River $240,000
OK Bear-Fall-Coon Creeks $75,000
OK Lost Duck Creek $45,000
OK Lower Clear Boggy Creek $50,000
OK Uncle John Creek $175,000
OK Upper Black Bear Creek $110,000
OK Upper Muddy Boggy Creek $45,000
OK Upper Red Rock Creek $85,000
OK Washita Creek $809,000
TN Cane Creek $12,400,000
Total $42,288,000

A message from Mike Thralls, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission.

Note: This message was sent to me several weeks ago and I apologize for just now posting it! –Jack Carson

We have been bombarded day after day with bad economic news. The nation’s economic downturn has made its way to Oklahoma and is affecting our state’s operating budget, including appropriations for conservation districts and the Commission. It appears inevitable that we will have significantly fewer state dollars for conservation in the upcoming fiscal year. On top of that, the Oklahoma Supreme Court voided our $25 million conservation bond issue, forcing us to start all over again with a new bill in this year’s Legislature. It would be easy to get discouraged from all this bad news. But I remain optimistic because I believe in the people involved in Oklahoma’s conservation partnership and their abilities to get the job done.

Those who heard my talk at the OACD state meeting recently know I am reading a book about Hugh Hammond Bennett. Bennett was the father of the soil conservation movement in our country and the first chief of the Soil Conservation Service, today’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Bennett was the one who through his passion, knowledge and political skills forged the conservation partnership in the 1930s during the bleakest days of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. He had an indomitable spirit, a “can do” attitude, and he refused to fail in his goal to successfully address soil erosion.

Even though we face significant economic and conservation challenges today, when compared to what Bennett faced in the 1930s, ours begin to pale. He was starting with nothing and had to build a delivery system from the ground up. Today in Oklahoma we have incredible human and technical resources, in our conservation partnership, that have blossomed since the 1930s. We have 440 dedicated district directors committed to natural resource conservation. We have 181 exceptional conservation district employees and 62 Commission staff — the most talented group in my eleven years with the Conservation Commission. We have 325 highly skilled NRCS employees. In short, rather than talk about the people we need to get the job done, we need to be excited about the quality folks we have that can get the job done!

Hugh H. Bennett (right) discusses grassland management with F.S. Hurd, chairman of the Arkansas Verdigris Soil Conservation District, today’s Tulsa County Conservation District. (Broken Arrow, Okla., May 29, 1943. J.W. Hammett, SCS.)

During these tough budget times I want all of our directors and employees to know that I am personally committed to finding every way possible to keep our operations intact and keep all of our employees in place. We have more federal, state and local conservation programs to deliver than ever before and we need all of our current employees to get the job done. Governor Henry has urged all state agencies to do their very best to avoid furloughs or layoffs in the coming year and here at the Commission I intend to do my very best to meet the governor’s goal.

While we all will be looking at more efficiencies and cost savings in our operations, I am also counting on districts to aggressively explore new partnerships and funding opportunities that can bring new resources into your operations. Think outside the box. At the state meeting I shared several impressive conservation district success stories where new resources were added. I want to encourage all of us to share these success stories with each other so we can get through these tough times together.

And finally I want to encourage districts to pool resources whenever possible to make sure the job gets done. We can no longer put walls around our districts. We need to find ways to share expertise, creativity, equipment and anything else so that our cooperators and our natural resources are served as best we can. We owe it to Hugh Hammond Bennett and to all the conservationists that came before us to get the job done.

When Mr. Bennett was interviewed late in his life, around 1950, he was asked if the severe erosion then occurring around the world caused him great concern. Having come through the Dust Bowl and seeing the positive transformation in our country, he was positive that the global problems could also be solved. His response was “We Can Do It!!!” To all of us I say, “We Can Do It!!!” Together we can get though these hard times and come out stronger on the other side.
–Mike Thralls

Recovery Act Assistance Will Help Rural Communities

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that the USDA will be sending $84.8 million to state and local governments to improve water quality, increase water supply, decrease soil erosion, and improve fish and wildlife habitat in rural communities as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

“President Obama is committed to improving water quality, creating more dependable water supplies and decreasing soil erosion and this funding will make a big difference in the lives of the people who live in these rural communities,” Vilsack said.

Other major benefits include improved community safety and health, flood mitigation, sediment control, and enhanced fish and wildlife habitat.

“For example,” Vilsack said “the Neshaminy Creek Watershed (Pennsylvania) project funding will be used to acquire, elevate and flood-protect approximately 80 homes and businesses in the 100-year flood plain, while the Beaver Creek (Colorado) Watershed project will develop 45 land-treatment contracts with family-owned farms, resulting in significant water quality improvement, water conservation, and enhancement of scarce wildlife habitat.”

ARRA funds will be used to develop conservation measures such as planting vegetative cover and creating shallow water ponds to improve wildlife habitat, improving irrigation efficiency and conserving water, installing filter strips and soil erosion control practices, flood proofing homes and enhancing stream corridor and floodplain function, and constructing small flood control dams.

USDA is directing technical and financial assistance available through this funding toward projects that are ready to begin and that will relieve stress on local economies through the creation of over 1,400 jobs.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has worked closely with sponsors to identify projects that are ready for immediate implementation.

Oklahoma projects to be funded include: Upper Red Rock Creek $60,000, Stillwater Creek $40,000, and Turkey Creek $1.67 million.

Conservation districts are local subunits of state government, supervised by boards of directors made up of five individuals. Two of these positions are appointed by members of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission for two-year terms. Three of the positions are elected by registered voters within the conservation district boundaries for three-year terms.

To be eligible as a candidate for conservation district director, an individual must be a registered voter in the district and must have a Cooperator Agreement with the district. The agreement between individuals and the district must be approved by the board of directors during a regular board meeting and must be on file at least 30 days prior to filing for office.

The filing period for Conservation District Director Elected Position No. 2 is scheduled from May 1 – 14, 2009. If two or more individuals file for this position, the election will be held on Tuesday, June 2, 2009. Information on cooperator agreements and necessary forms for this election can be obtained from the local conservation district office or from the Oklahoma Conservation Commission at 405.521.2384. Forms can also be found at www.conservation.ok.gov and click on District Director Elections.

In light of Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling voiding the state bond issue for conservation projects, Conservation Commission Executive Director Mike Thralls is urging the Legislature to reauthorize the bond this session. He said critical repairs to Oklahoma’s conservation and flood control infrastructure are desperately needed.

“We at the Conservation Commission understand that Supreme Court was not asked to decide on the value of the projects included in the bonds, but on the constitutionality of the vehicle that carried them,” Thralls said. “There is legislation currently in the Legislature to enact the conservation bond in its own bill,” he added. “We are hopeful that the bill will be passed on its own merits for the public safety of the state of Oklahoma. And we are anxious for the resolution of the bond issue so we can begin to put those vital conservation measures on the ground,” he said.

About $16 million of the funding from the bond would be used to repair and rehabilitate flood control dams across the state and would be matched by the same amount of federal dollars. Another $4 million would be used in a flood protection project in the Kingfisher area. Another $3 million would be used to repair dams in Caddo County that were devastated in the tropical storm Erin that swept inland and across Oklahoma in 2007.

“In 2007 Oklahoma experienced many severely damaging weather events, from the snow storms in the Panhandle, ‘hurricane’ Erin in the west and southwest, the ice storms in the east and the devastating flooding in the far northeast,” Thralls said. “We are anxious see this bond in place so we can get to work rebuilding at least a portion of the infrastructure that has played such a vital role in the public safety of Oklahoma – protecting homes, businesses, roads and bridges and especially human lives,” Thralls said.

Earlier this month a news article suggested that Oklahoma’s dams were not being inspected. Our friend and associate, Ron Hays, carried a story from the Oklahoma Conservation Commission that clarified that the Oklahoma Conservation Districts are in fact inspecting the state’s 2,105 upstream floodwater dams.

Mark Harrison with the OCC emailed this link to their press release about their dam inspections.

Mark points out that the 2,105 floodwater dams represent $2.1 billion in infrastructure and provide $75 million in benefits each year.

In today’s Daily Oklahoman, Clay Pope, director of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts, states his case for investing in conservation infrastructure as an important part of economic recovery.

This is located in the opinion section of today’s Oklahoman and Pope calls for cleaning up abandoned mining sites, maintaining flood control dams, clearing brush and several more things to enhance and protect Oklahoma’s natural resources and provide employment opportunities.

It’s a good read for agriculturists and everyone concerned about our natural resources.

Jack Carson