Letters to the editor

Earth Day for

farmers and ranchers

Recently the Natural Resources Conservation Service announced sign ups for the Conservation Security Program (CSP). This program, in its second year, is intended not only to reduce soil erosion and conserve and restore wetlands, but improve air quality and enhance wildlife habitat. Additional categories this year will offer rewards for showing energy conservation and implementing renewable fuels on a farm or ranch operation.

Conservation programs are important for American agriculture because they provide farmers and ranchers the opportunity to enhance profitability while caring for the land. In fact, more than 2,000 farmers and ranchers enrolled 2 million acres in the program during 2004, the first year of limited implementation for CSP, Farmers keep excellent records of soil tests, manure, fertilizer and pesticide applications, harvest and forage yields, grazing, tillage and irrigation practices. These records help to ensure that good environmental practices are being followed, and play a critical role when producers are using conservation programs.

As the country gets ready to celebrate another Earth Day, programs like CSP give farmers and ranchers the tools they need to continue to work toward a cleaner, healthier environment. It helps to prove that our agricultural producers are committed to the land. Look at some of the amazing statistics about how producers have made great advances in caring for land, livestock, wildlife and people over the past 20 years. More than 1,000 private landowners have restored and enhanced wetlands on more than 200,000 acres. Farmers, ranchers and other landowners have installed 1.54 million miles of conservation buffers throughout the United States, and they have worked to develop conservation plans on more than 12.7 million acres of cropland and 25 million acres of grazing land. In an effort to keep our waterways clean and viable, nearly 3 million acres of cropland now have certified nutrient management plans.

Being good stewards of the land is what farming and ranching is all about. Applaud and celebrate our state's agriculturalists' successes because every day is Earth Day for farmers and ranchers.

Dave McClure

President, Montana Farm Bureau