Farm Bill

By Coleman Garrison Last week, Congress passed an omnibus appropriations bill - that President Donald Trump signed into law - that avoided a government shutdown and funds the federal government through the end of the 2018 fiscal year. NACD releases appropriations requests around February of each year, and our organization is generally pleased with the…… Continue reading →

By Coleman Garrison As Congress wraps up its work for 2017 and NACD looks ahead to the new year, we wanted to let you know where things stand on a few topics. This week, Congress narrowly avoided a shutdown of the federal government by passing another short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) which will fund the federal…… Continue reading →

Over the past year and a half, NACD’s Farm Bill Task Force, currently chaired by NACD First Vice President Tim Palmer, has worked to create a set of policy requests for the 2018 Farm Bill. Starting with a survey of our members last summer, the Task Force created a set of principles that helped to…… Continue reading →

The National Conservation Planning Partnership is excited to introduce a new peer-to-peer web conference series to support conservation planning staff and partners. Developed as part of a national priority to reinvigorate conservation planning, the interactive workshops will help to ensure that our field staff are fully engaged and have the right tools to work one-on-one…… Continue reading →

By Chris Heck As part of an ongoing farm bill series, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry held a hearing last week on farm bill forestry initiatives. Earlier this month, the subcommittee heard testimony from NACD CEO Jeremy Peters on the importance of farm bill conservation programs. Last Thursday’s hearing took a comprehensive…… Continue reading →

By Eric Hansen USDA is expanding its Working Lands for Wildlife program, an NRCS and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiative that has been instrumental in conserving at-risk wildlife habitat on working lands. Through Working Lands for Wildlife, NRCS focuses financial and technical assistance on private lands that support seven target species: the greater sage-grouse, lesser prairie-chicken, gopher tortoise, New England cottontail,…… Continue reading →

By Eric Hansen Last month, NRCS finalized regulations for its new Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), marking the end of 2014 Farm Bill implementation and opening up several opportunities for conservation districts to assist landowners in conservation planning. First, some background: the 2014 Farm Bill combined the NRCS' Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program, Grassland Reserve…… Continue reading →

By Chris Heck WASHINGTON, Oct. 20, 2016 – The presidential debate night started well before the general election candidates took stage yesterday. Earlier that morning in Washington, D.C., Hillary Clinton surrogate Kathleen Merrigan, a former deputy agriculture secretary, went head-to-head with Sam Clovis, Donald Trump’s senior agriculture advisor, at a Farm Foundation Forum on their…… Continue reading →

By Mike Beacom The value of pre-fire planning can be witnessed this summer in New Mexico, where landscape teams – as designated by the local forest supervisor – are working together to maximize resources and keep communities informed. In 2008, almost 14,000 acres in and around the Cibola National Forest in New Mexico were burned…… Continue reading →

In 2016, Congress will have a lot on its schedule, especially in the area of agriculture. The first issues that Congress will probably address first are ones that were not completed last year, including School Nutrition Reauthorization, preemption or GMO labeling, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reauthorization. Congress completed the fiscal year 2016 appropriations…… Continue reading →