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Hamilton County Agriculture

NRCS Staff

• John Williams, District Conservationist
  Stationed in Butler County

• Jeff Barnes, Soil Conservationist
  Stationed in Butler County

NRCS Mission Statement
The Natural Resources Conservation Service provides leadership in a partnership effort to help conserve, maintain, and improve our natural resources and environment.

Our Role in Hamilton County
Our main goal and responsibility is to convey and implement the USDA Farm Bill Programs in Hamilton County.

Explanation of Farm Bill Programs
The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 is landmark legislation for conservation funding and for focusing on environmental issues. The conservation provisions will assist farmers and ranchers in meeting environmental challenges on their land. This legislation simplifies existing programs and creates new programs to address high priority environmental and production goals. The 2002 Farm Bill enhances the long-term quality of our environmental and conservation of our natural resources.

• CCRP (Continuous Conservation Reserve Program): This program is for landowners with cropland planted to commodity crops. Eligibility requires the land to have been cropped four years between 1996 and 2001. Cost share pays approximately 50% of the average costs for such practices as: grassed waterways; vegetative filter strips; water control structures; shallow water wetlands; and riparian forest buffers. Landowners will also receive rental payments (based on soil types) for land taken out of production are provided for 10 to 15 years depending on the life of the contract. Additional incentive payments of up to 40% could be obtained through Practice Incentive Payments (PIP) and Signing Incentive Payments (SIP). Landowners can sign up at any time as it is a continuous sign up.
   

  Jeff Barnes (R) and Nate Sturm (L) Survey a waterway site	Construction of Waterway	Finished Waterway

• CRP (Conservation Reserve Program): Provides rental payments to producers who plant sensitive lands (such as Highly Erodible Land) to long-term cover. Cover options include trees; cool season grasses; and warm season grasses. Cost share for establishing conservation cover is 50%. The Farm Service Agency will announce the general CRP sign-up when it is available. More information will be available at that time.
   
• EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program): Provides total resource management system planning on the whole farm. A wide variety of conservation practices are available for cost share, including: rotational grazing systems; waste management systems; alternative watering; heavy use areas; waterways; livestock exclusionary fencing; and pasture planting. Most cost share rates are 50% for installation of practices, but some practices are cost shared up to 100%. A 90% cost share rates is also available for Limited Resource Farmers and New Farmers. Contract periods are from one to 10 years. There is a continuous sign-up period for EQIP; applications are ranked and funded once per year on a funds availability basis.
   

  Pasture Seeding on Ken Grob’s farm	Heavy Use Area @ Walnut-Creek Stables	Access Road on Richard Noel’s Farm

• WHIP (Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program): Uses five to 15 year cost share agreements to protect and restore wetland and wildlife habitats. Emphasis is placed on warm-season grassland habitat and wetland habitat creation. To be eligible the area to be treated must be at least 5 acres in size. There is a continuous sign-up period for WHIP; applications are ranked and funded once per year, statewide, on a funds availability basis.
   

  Young deer at the Enderle Wetland site	Enderle Wetland	Johnson Tree Plantings

These are just the most common programs used in Hamilton County, to find out more visit the Ohio NRCS website by clicking www.oh.nrcs.usda.gov

Here are some other helpful links for your use and up-to-date info:

• Farm Service Agency: www.fsa.usda.gov 

• Natural Resources Conservation Service: www.nrcs.usda.gov

• National Association of Conservation Districts: www.nacdnet.org