DAVIS, Calif., July 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- California farmers and landowners submitted more than 340 applications to participate in the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), resulting in 201 contracts awarded and more than $3 million for land stewards, announced California State Conservationist Ed Burton, with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill, is the successor of the Conservation Security Program. This is the first time conservation contracts are being awarded under the new version of the voluntary program that offers payments to producers who exercise good land stewardship and agree to further improve their conservation performance.  The new CSP is available to all producers regardless of operation size, crops produced, or geographic location.

"These contracts cover more than 339,631 acres and will provide a total of $3,263,124 to California producers who go the extra mile by maintaining their existing conservation activities and adopting new ones on their farm, ranch, or non-industrial forestland operations," Burton said.  "California's conservation-minded land stewards consistently respond positively to the voluntary incentives approach to environmental protection."

A recently released final report on the first CSP signup indicates that California's CSP enrolled acreage and obligation amounts were both above the national average, which were 244,018 acres and $2,787,859 respectively.   California's enrolled CSP rangeland acreage alone was more than 244,000 acres.

Nationwide, there were 10,630 CSP contracts with $144,968,683 obligated.  Altogether, 12,688,937 acres were enrolled, just 80,063 acres short of the national acreage enrollment goal of 12,769,000.  About 9 percent of this acreage was non-industrial private forestland.

CSP Acreage Breakdown

Applications for CSP are taken on a continual basis at NRCS field offices throughout California.

SOURCE USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service

RELATED LINKS
http://www.ca.nrcs.usda.gov