The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is currently holding continuous sign-up for the new Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) with a first cutoff for ranking scheduled for September 30, 2009.  As part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, Congress renamed and revamped the former Conservation Security Program completely to improve its availability and appeal to agricultural and forestry producers.  CSP is now being offered in all 50 states as well as other terrirtories with a maximum nationwide enrollment of nearly 12.8 million acres.

To apply for CSP, producers are encouraged to first use a self-screening checklist to determine if the new program is suitable for them or their operation.  The checklist is available on www.oh.nrcs.usda.gov and at the NRCS office.  After the self-screening, the producers' current and proposed conservation activities are entered in the conservation management tool (CMT).  This tool estimates the level of environmental performance to be achieved by a producer implementing and maintaining conservation activities which will, in turn, be used to rank applications.

A producer must treat at least one resource concern and one priority resource concern during the length of the CSP's five-year contract.  Ohio has selected water quality, soil quality, and plants as the three priority resource concerns.  Ohio has also established three ranking pools to rank applications with similar resource concerns, the Western Lake Erie Basin, Appalachian, and a general pool for the remainder of the State.

Producers must meet several requirements to obtain a CSP contract.  They must be listed as the operator in the USDA farm records management system for the operation being offered for enrollment.  They must document that they control the land for the term of the contract and include all eligible land in their entire operation in that contract.  They must comply with highly erodible land and wetland conservation provisions and comply with Adjusted Gross Income provisions.  Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, prairie, improved pastureland, and non-industrial forestland.  Lands enrolled in the Conservation Security Program, the Conservation Reserve Program, the Grasslands Reserve Program, and the Wetlands Reserve Program are not eligible for the new Conservation Stewardship Program.

For more information, contact NRCS District Conservationist Denise Shafer at (740) 368-1921.