THE FARM BILL UMBRELLA
            The 2007 Farm Bill is now known as the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. At this writing the bill sent to the President had sufficient support for a Congressional override of his veto. The funding of the Farm Bill may at first glance appear to be unrelated to your daily life. The fact is that the big umbrella funded by the Farm Bill – the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) – shelters us all.
            Obviously an important provision of the bill is the support of agriculture upon which we depend for food and fiber. Way beyond that, the Bill provides services to keep us safe and secure. In all, there are fourteen “titles” and only one deals directly with payments for farm products (commodities). Other titles include conservation, trade, nutrition, credit, rural development, research, forestry, energy, horticulture and organic agriculture, livestock, crop insurance, futures, and miscellaneous related items including animal welfare and agricultural security. More information can be found at http://agriculture.house.gov.
            The USDA has Service Centers in counties all over the United States managing payments to producers and serving rural development needs. In Stephenson County, the Center includes the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and its partner the Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) providing landowners with the technical assistance needed to plan and apply conservation practices.
            The Farm Bill also includes funding for the technical assistance services of the Resource Conservation and Development Areas (RC&D). Blackhawk Hills RC&D serves JoDaviess, Stephenson, Carroll, Ogle, Whiteside and Lee Counties. “For the year ending March 31, 2008, Blackhawk Hills was responsible for completing 18 projects and brought in over $4 million in federal, state, and local funding. For every dollar the federal government brought to the RC&D Council we were able to leverage $20”, reported Cathy Brunner, President, in the 2008 Annual Report.
            The Counties and SWCDs assist in funding Blackhawk Hills RC&D that also operates as an Economic Development District for the region. Some of the projects related to conservation and economic development that received technical support during the past year are:

• Forestry Management Workshop – helping landowners to improve woodlands.
• Women and the Wild – teaching outdoor skills to women.
• Grazing Workshop – encouraging increased use of intensive managed grazing practices for livestock.
• Distribution of Environmental Protection Agency funds to producers for clean water practices that manage run off from livestock operations including disposal of milk house waste.
• The Driftless Area Initiative working across state lines to address resource concerns of the Upper Mississippi watershed.
• The Envirothon competition promoting environmental education.
• Economic Development Guidebook to be distributed by the National Association of RC&D Councils.
• The Entrepreneurs & Inventors Club.

More about Blackhawk Hills RC&D and project applications can be found at www.blackhawkhills.com.

Della Moen, Earth Team Volunteer, NRCS/Stephenson Soil and Water
Conservation District, an equal opportunity provider and employer, 05/21/08
(for publication on 05/31/08 in the Journal-Standard, Freeport, Illinois).
Della can be reached at info@stephensonswcd.org