California Wilderness Coalition Praises Commitment to Conservation in Senate Farm Bill
Contact: Ben Wallace, 530-758-0380
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 15, 2002
DAVIS - California Wilderness Coalition today praised passage of strong conservation measures in the Senate Farm Bill. On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted 58-40 in support of a compromise Farm Bill, which balances ongoing crop subsidies with increased funding for conservation programs. The new commitment to conservation will reward farmers who preserve farmland and adopt environmentally beneficial land stewardship practices.
In California, nearly 35,000 acres of farmland are converted to urban use every year. The loss of this land diminishes agricultural output, hastens the decline of wildlife, increases flooding, and replaces open space with sprawl. "It’s like building a city the size of San Francisco smack in the middle of California’s farmland every year," commented Ben Wallace, conservation associate at California Wilderness Coalition.
The bill passed by the U.S. Senate takes bold steps to help farmers and wildlife. Mr. Wallace singled out the Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, also known as "WHIP," for particular praise. "With 279 threatened and endangered species in California, we need to help farmers protect and restore habitat on private land. WHIP will give farmers essential resources to practice wildlife-friendly farming while maintaining a profitable business." The Senate Farm Bill also includes a voluntary, state-controlled water conservation program that will ensure the financial security of agricultural producers while protecting endangered fish.
A new grasslands protection program sponsored by Senator Feinstein will greatly advance open space preservation in California. It will enable California’s ranchers to use permanent and long-term easements to prevent the conversion of rangeland to subdivisions, while maintaining wildlife corridors and preserving critical grassland ecosystems. The Senate made a similarly strong commitment to farmland protection, providing $350 million annually for easements to preserve prime farmland, such as row crops or orchards, in the path of urban sprawl.
The Senate also approved important new program rules that will enable more California farmers to access conservation funding, and boost California’s watershed-based conservation efforts. These new rules will allow state and local governments to coordinate resources and expertise from all USDA conservation programs to address local conservation problems.
The commitment to conservation in the Senate Farm Bill contrasts starkly with the Farm Bill passed by the House of Representatives in October of 2001. A House-Senate conference committee will convene shortly to work out differences between the two bills the resulting bill goes President Bush. If California’s leaders stand firm behind the conservation gains in the Senate, the Farm Bill will finally help local producers while improving environmental benefits for all Californians.
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