Two watersheds on Kaua‘i have been named among 202 watersheds nationwide for inclusion into a federal program that provides money to private landowners to preserve farms and ranches. The two Kaua‘i watersheds cover areas from Anahola to Hanapepe, representing nearly
Two watersheds on Kaua‘i have been named among 202 watersheds nationwide for inclusion into a federal program that provides money to private landowners to preserve farms and ranches.
The two Kaua‘i watersheds cover areas from Anahola to Hanapepe, representing nearly half of the island. Two other watershed areas on Maui also are targeted for the federal funds.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service’s 2005 Conservation Security Program will provide funding to landowners who have initiated conservation programs on their properties in the past, and will add to them.
Should more watersheds on Kaua‘i be selected for the program, the newly launched program is anticipated to help strengthen the island’s agricultural industry.
That is a key priority of Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste’s administration with the diminution of the sugar industry. Just one plantation, Gay & Robinson, continues to grow and harvest sugar on the island.
The Kaua‘i and Maui watersheds will be the first watersheds in the state that will benefit from the program.
The amount of funding to come to Kaua‘i was not immediately known.
Farmers and ranchers who feel they are eligible for the funding can complete an online self-assessment found at http://csp.sc.egov.usda.gov, or contact Lex Riggle at the NRCS office in room 104 at 4334 Rice St., Lihu‘e, 245-9014.
“It will be eligible kind of land. It has to be agricultural lands and privately owned, not leased state lands for agricultural use,” said Riggle, the district conservationist for the USDANRCS office on Kaua‘i.
The funds for the program are part of $1.6 billion in “mandatory” funding outgoing Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced last week that is available to help boost conservation efforts by farmers and ranchers across the nation.
USDA officials released the $1.6 billion to help farmers improve their operations, and to spread out their operational expenses to protect water resources, soil and the wildlife, and to help keep the air clean.
Under the USDA’s Conservation Security Program, landowners will receive a “yearly rental rate” and up to an additional 50 to 75 percent in “cost share,” depending on the type of conservation measures used, the official said.
Such methods range from building terraces, diverting water, establishing water-sediment-control structures, building waterways, buffer strips and filter strips, and using pest-control and erosion-prevention methods.
Under program restrictions, all selected projects are eligible for funding only every eight years. The restrictions would apply to the two Kaua‘i and two Maui projects as well.
Hawai‘i officials listed proposed watersheds based on concerns raised by a state “technical committee” involved with the project.
An NRCS spokesperson in Honolulu said the Kaua‘i watersheds also were nominated by Riggle.
Two hundred and two watersheds have been selected under the program, and represent one-eighth of nearly 208,000 of the nation’s potentially eligible farms and ranches that cover about 83 million acres found in 50 states and in the Caribbean.
The program was authorized by the 2003 Farm Bill, and includes a renewable-energy component.
Farmers who qualify for the program will be financially compensated for converting to energy fuels such as soy bio-diesel and ethanol, for recycling all lubricants used for farm operations, and for implementing projects that create alternate energy, including wind, solar, geothermal and methane production.
“I am very excited about this new opportunity for local work groups to help recognize our most deserving land stewards,” Lawrence Yamamoto, NRCS Hawai‘i state conservationist, said in a news statement.
U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Neighbor Islands-rural O‘ahu, is a member of the House Agriculture Committee and its subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Rural Development and Research, whose members reviewed the program during a congressional visit to Hilo earlier this year.
Case said the hearing his committee held gave him the chance to emphasize the “importance of this program for all of us in Hawai‘i, where prime agricultural and undeveloped lands face the constant threat of over-development and overuse.”
For more information on the USDA’s Conservation Security Program, contact USDANRCS officials Jolene Lau, 1-808-541-2600, ext. 135, or Keith Matsutani at 1-808-541-2600, ext. 149.
Riggle said information sessions on the program will be held on Kaua‘i in the future. “People should contact our office.”
Lester Chang, staff writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@pulitzer.net.
