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Working w/other groups

Re Cindy H's email regarding other organizations to work with re the Farm Bill:

1) Why don't we come up with a list of groups and ask if they are working or interested in influencing Farm Bill changes?

2) Once we have a list, have volunteers find their email addresses and send them an email, similar to Lee Stone's email to this group (see the August 00 archives at
http://www.mallorn.com/lists/prairie/    (Cindy - can you polish or edit it?)

3) And where are all those people from the N. Am. Prairie Conference that were interested in addressing these Farm Bill problems? We want to hear from you; be prepared to do a task or two to help our efforts. Sometimes it is only a 10 minute job, seeking info from the web that our group needs.

If anyone has a better idea on how to do this, speak up. Be prepared, though, to offer some time and energy, even if it is just a few minutes pecking on your keyboard. 

Here are some groups I thought of to contact:

Farm Bureau (don't laugh ... they may want to save prairies)
National  Wildlife Federation (wasn't that helpful gal at the Farm Bill meeting from here?)
Environmental Defense Fund
Quail, Ducks, and Pheasants Unlimited
Other hunting groups (what are they?)
Wildlife Society
Fund for Wildlife
Dan Glickman (Sec of Ag ... he is probably on his way out,  but email him anyway)
Pearlie Buck (head of the NRCS ... not sure if I have the name correct)
head of the Farm Service Agency

If there is a concensus to contact these groups with an email containing a summary of our concerns, I'll tackle these groups. 

Let's hear from you, prairie enthusiasts!!!!!!

Tina Lorentzen



>>> Grantridge@aol.com 08/21/00 11:19PM >>>
Perhaps we could try to work with another conservation organization(s) that 
is already following and working on the conservation provisions of the Farm 
Bill.   The message we heard during the NAPC discussion (and that I've heard 
from others since) is that it will be challenging just to keep adequate 
conservation funding in the next Farm Bill, since there will be enormous 
political pressure to put more funding into other areas.   I would like to 
find out, from someone who knows a lot about Farm Bill conservation politics, 
what prairie-supporting provisions it would make most sense to work on.   We 
all have limited time and energy, so how can we most effectively use them?    
  
   
For example:

(1)  Is it realistic to work for the repeal of the provision that allows land 
to qualify for the CRP after just two years of rowcrops?  That provision 
creates an incentive to plow up prairies.   Or is that provision going to be 
almost impossible to change because it has strong political support?  

(2) Would it be effective to work for the creation and funding of a grassland 
easement program, to create an incentive to save prairies?   Apparently such 
an easement program has already been proposed.    Which groups are working on 
it, and what chance does it have of becoming a reality?

(3)  How hard will it be to repeal the federal requirement that woody species 
be planted on all CRP marginal riparian pastureland?   That requirement is 
destroying prairies too.   I haven't met anyone who likes that requirement, 
but clearly someone (unfortunately) thought it was a good idea, and it had 
support in the national political process.   How and why was it enacted?   
Which people/agencies/organizations would we need to contact and/or work with 
to get rid of it?   Would it be more effective for us to try to contact other 
conservation organizations and get their support for repealing it, and work 
with them, instead of (or as well as) making individual contacts?  Since 
repealing that requirement wouldn't seem to cost money, is trying to do that 
more attainable than some other prairie-saving Farm Bill goals? 

(4)  What other Farm Bill provisions would most help prairies and also be 
most achievable?

I don't have time to find out answers myself.   I'd like to get information 
(for all of us) from someone who is already familiar with Farm Bill language 
and politics and also is concerned about prairies and conservation.   Is 
there a way to do that?  

Cindy Hildebrand
Ames, IA  50010

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