Conservation wins in the Farm Bill!

In addition to the 2007 Senate and House Energy Bills, this summer marks the successful passage of the Farm Bill (HR 2419) in the House of Representatives. 

Although the bill did not address every priority of conservation and environmental organizations, it did increase overall funding for conservation of bird and wildlife habitat on private lands administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). These conservation programs are critical, as they help landowners voluntarily preserve over 40 million acres of habitat in the U.S.

As reported by Montana Audubon, the House had the opportunity to write a Farm Bill that provided for greater reforms and more conservation, it chose to make smaller reforms and direct significant funding to conservation. 

The legislation includes extensions of many popular conservation programs, such as the Conservation Reserve Program and the Wetlands Reserve Program. In addition, the House reauthorized the Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP), which protects and improves habitat for grassland birds. 

According to Montana Audubon, the reauthorization could have been stronger, as the GRP was authorized at only one million acres over five years.  The group stresses, however, that this reauthorization allows conservation organizations to continue to advocate for more funding for the program during the annual appropriations process.

Other positive outcomes of the Farm Bill include the reauthorization of the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, which was funded at its current level of $85 million per year.  The Environmental Qualities Incentives Program (EQIP) was provided annual incremental increases advancing the program to $2 billion by 2012. These importance of these program to sportsmen are highlighted in a post by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. 

As reported by the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC), the new Farm Bill also provides support for homegrown, renewable biofuels projects, to address the country's need for sustainable energy.  The legislation creates the Biomass Energy Reserve (BER), which provides financial and technical assistance to landowners and operators to produce energy crops, and harvest, store and transport cellulosic materials for bioenergy production. 

Now that the House has finished its work, the Senate will likely take action on the Farm Bill in September.  Congressional Watch will be sure to report on the Senate version of this key measure, which impacts wildlife and habitat across Montana and the country.

Representative Dennis Rehberg did vote for the Farm Bill, although he did so "reluctantly", according to a AP story in the Billings Gazette (Billings Gazette, July 28th, 2007)