Sec. Vilsack & Pheasants Forever join forces to deliver conservation results

By Jon H. Harsch

© Copyright Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc.

Washington, Feb. 25 – To help more farmers and ranchers install and manage USDA-paid conservation practices and “get more habitat on the ground,” Pheasants Forever (PF) is hiring.

The wildlife habitat conservation organization’s “FarmBill Biologist” program began when it hired its first four biologists in South Dakota in 2003. Seven years later, PF has 50 biologists under state-wide agreements in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Once Agriculture Secretary Vilsack signs the first-ever national agreement with PF at PF’s annual National Pheasant Fest in Iowa Feb. 27^th, Kansas and Colorado will join the list – and PF will recruit another 20 biologists over the next five months to “go national” with its conservation efforts.

This Saturday’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formally creates a nation-wide effort linking PF with USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). PF’s FarmBill Biologist Coordinator Jim Inglis says the MOU will extend PF’s reach to more states “to assist landowners in designing, developing, and funding habitat improvements on private lands.” He points out that Congress has increased funding for conservation programs in successive farm bills, but staffing levels at USDA haven’t kept pace. That’s created a need which PF has filled by creating new “green jobs” to deliver the funding that Congress has already provided.

Inglis says “We’re helping USDA deliver Farm Bill conservation programs by having our biologists on the ground. . . We’re focused mostly on wildlife and enhancing the wildlife parts of USDA’s conservation programs, but we’re helping deliver the Farm Bill conservation programs overall, to help those dollars get spent in the best ways possible.”

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