This year we have two landowners who entered the SAFE monarch CRP program. In the past all we have had to do was draw the trail on a map for the county and good to go. NOT this stuff. At first they said no, and this being mid November, we pushed back a bit and questioned it. They agreed for this year we have access, but not the two following years, until these lands have been established with thistle, milkweed and whatever else is included in the mix, which they said was extremely expensive. I am posting below a portion of an email that our county director sent me about this topic.
[FONT="]NRCS is Natural Resources Conservation Service[/FONT]
[FONT="]FSA is Farm Service Agency[/FONT]
"NRCS and FSA attended the last Environment and Land Use meeting on 1/2/19. My boss questioned them on the issues with the trails that are on the new butterfly habitats. NRCS was not aware of the problem. They said since this program is so new they have no idea how long it is going to take for things to establish. Since it is such an unknown they cannot allow the trails to go through those sections at this time.
Going forward, the best thing the clubs can do is make sure the land owners are informed. Land owners need to be aware that before they sign the CRP agreement they have to make sure the trails are excluded and will not be planted. Both NRCS and FSA are stating it is the land owners responsibility to know what is on their land. The land owner needs to make sure that if they want the trail then they have to advise FSA of this before agreements are signed."
So basically they are holding landowners responsible for telling them before entering the program about any snowmobile trails that might cross, but the problem with this is landowners don't tell us their land use plans til its to late. So take this info to your next meeting and inform your club to send out a letter to your landowners regarding this program. If you notice the sentence "this program is new and they have no idea how long it will take" sentence, and are weary of the government like I am, I take it as they could decide it's too delicate to ever let trails through.
The AWSC talked about this at the last weekends directors meeting and Sam Landes and others are going to be working on the issue, but for now the course of action is to be on top of this, so I hope this will get the info to some of the clubs. To make things worse for us, this particular program pays quite well for CRP programs, so it will be attractive to landowners as long as grain prices stay low. At least thats how I feel about it.
By no means do not take this post as a complaint about CRP programs or anyones decision to enter one. Its just a FYI to help club members avoid this problem.
[FONT="]NRCS is Natural Resources Conservation Service[/FONT]
[FONT="]FSA is Farm Service Agency[/FONT]
"NRCS and FSA attended the last Environment and Land Use meeting on 1/2/19. My boss questioned them on the issues with the trails that are on the new butterfly habitats. NRCS was not aware of the problem. They said since this program is so new they have no idea how long it is going to take for things to establish. Since it is such an unknown they cannot allow the trails to go through those sections at this time.
Going forward, the best thing the clubs can do is make sure the land owners are informed. Land owners need to be aware that before they sign the CRP agreement they have to make sure the trails are excluded and will not be planted. Both NRCS and FSA are stating it is the land owners responsibility to know what is on their land. The land owner needs to make sure that if they want the trail then they have to advise FSA of this before agreements are signed."
So basically they are holding landowners responsible for telling them before entering the program about any snowmobile trails that might cross, but the problem with this is landowners don't tell us their land use plans til its to late. So take this info to your next meeting and inform your club to send out a letter to your landowners regarding this program. If you notice the sentence "this program is new and they have no idea how long it will take" sentence, and are weary of the government like I am, I take it as they could decide it's too delicate to ever let trails through.
The AWSC talked about this at the last weekends directors meeting and Sam Landes and others are going to be working on the issue, but for now the course of action is to be on top of this, so I hope this will get the info to some of the clubs. To make things worse for us, this particular program pays quite well for CRP programs, so it will be attractive to landowners as long as grain prices stay low. At least thats how I feel about it.
By no means do not take this post as a complaint about CRP programs or anyones decision to enter one. Its just a FYI to help club members avoid this problem.