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Federal cost-share program valuable resource for landowners
By Sarah G. McC. Moise
Staff Writer
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service sought comments from South Carolina landowners and organizations on its conservation cost share program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
“Each state in the country needs to gather input from the public by written, e-mail or public verbal response,” says Bethel DuRant, director of the Natural Resources Conservation Service in South Carolina. “Input from landowners and groups, environmental organizations and the commodities board tells us if we are focusing on the right things and if there are new emerging issues we need to be better informed of.”
The comments are sent to Washington and used to look at 2006 funding for the program. The program was enacted by Congress in the 2002 Farm Bill and gives state and county offices money to enter into cost-share contracts with landowners.
For 2005 EQIP had 650 applications with requests for $6.1 million from state landowners interested in environmental projects. “We have already funded $5 million and 390 applications for 2005. And we’ve got another statewide signup for April 1 to allocate slightly over $2 million,” says DuRant.
DuRant’s goal and mission is to assist the local conservation district in every county. “Not every field office does the same thing,” she says. “Landowners from the seacoast to the mountains have different crops and soil types and resource needs.”
Dwayne Mangum is the district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. His North Charleston field office serves both Berkeley and Charleston counties to help citizens decide on practices that benefit wildlife and crop production and assist them with the application process.
“Every county has a different list of resource priority concerns,” says Mangum. “In Charleston County, soil quality is number one, followed by surface quality. Number three is water quantity. For example, sea island farmers have ponds that sometimes get salt intrusion; we could help pay for a well to provide water for them to continue operations.”
Other Charleston County concerns are wetlands health, air quality, grazing land health, habitat quality and plant population health. To receive federal funding, landowners have to show there is a resource concern, where cost-share practices will remedy one of the agency’s concerns, such as nutrient runoff in streams, animal waste problems, soil erosion, reducing energy costs, or reducing water needs for crops.
On average, Mangum’s office administers anywhere from $75,000 to $150,000 in contracts. “That’s not a lot,” he says. “We advertise through the agricultural media, newsletters and direct mailings. We’ve had public meetings in the past and invited people to come listen, but we haven’t been terribly successful.”
For 2005, only two individuals were given contracts for the EQIP program in Berkeley County and were awarded $36,940. But there were none funded in Charleston County or in Dorchester County this year. Considering the plethora of services his office has and can offer, Mangum seems puzzled by this lack of participation.
“We are one of the few agencies in the whole government that goes out and works one-on-one with private landowners to put conservation practices in place on the ground,” he says. “Our service is free. We try to provide service to help the landowner or provide them with technical resources.”
“We write a contract and give the landowner a copy with all of the practices we recommend, such as prescribed burning, thinning, firebreaks, cover crops and runoff recommendations,” explains Mangum. “We check him and make sure he followed the specifications and then we reimburse him. The money is an incentive for them to try the practice, and hopefully they will adopt it as their own after the money runs out.”
Although EQIP is the conservation service’s premier program, county offices also administer programs and funding for grassland, farmland and wetland properties. In some cases, the federal government is equipped to purchase development rights for cash as well as tax credits, while allowing the landowner to continue to farm or timber the property.
Mangum has resources in biology, hydrology and engineering, and can help with special needs. Development consultants frequently use his office’s soil survey maps and aerial photographs in phase one studies. He gives information to real estate agents and developers and offers flood control and emergency watershed work to units of local government.
“These programs are not just for big landowners,” he says. “The way the ranking process works does not favor the number of acres, it favors the diversity of practices required to get the land up to speed. Someone with 50 acres could rank higher than someone with 1,000 acres who only wanted to implement one practice.”
The state office does not have a set budget, but instead submits a budget request annually to its office in Washington. “We get a budget once Congress enacts legislation that funds us on an annual basis,” says DuRant.
Budget is not based on state size, and states like Georgia or Florida have greater agricultural investment and receive more funding to meet a greater number of needs. “As far as percentages, South Carolina stacks in well because we use the money wisely to get it out there to the landowners,” Mangum says. He is hopeful that property owners will be more forthcoming in using his department’s services.
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program
The Federal Register and the Natural Resources Conservation Service national Web site, www.nrcs.usda.gov, can be used to submit written comments. All comments received will be recorded and forwarded for national review and consideration in developing the 2006 Environmental Quality Incentives Program and beyond.
Residents of Charleston and Berkeley counties who wish to contact the Natural Resources Conservation Service should call Dwayne Mangum at 727-4160; for Dorchester County, call Jeff Lucas at 563-3218.
Sarah G. McC. Moïse covers environmental and agricultural issues for the Business Journal. E-mail her at smoise@crbj.com.
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