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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to

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Speaker 1: the White Tail Woods presented by First Light, creating proven

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Speaker 1: versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light,

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Speaker 1: Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to.

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Speaker 2: The Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on the show,

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Speaker 2: we are discussing the future of the farm bill and

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Speaker 2: private lands conservation in America. All right, folks, welcome back

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Speaker 2: to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by

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Speaker 2: First Light and their Camera for Conservation initiative, and we

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Speaker 2: are continuing our Habitat series here as we discuss different issues, ideas, tactics,

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Speaker 2: and strategies for helping you get better habitat on the

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Speaker 2: ground for the wildlife and hunting that you care so

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Speaker 2: much about. And today's conversation is definitely within the parameters

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Speaker 2: of that series. This is maybe as important of a

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Speaker 2: discussion as we'll ever have related to getting strong habitat

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Speaker 2: work done on private lands. And that's because today we're

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Speaker 2: talking about bigger picture programs that impact how this stuff happens,

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Speaker 2: how this stuff gets funded, and how you personally, if

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Speaker 2: you are a land manager or landowner, how you might

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Speaker 2: be able to get assistance in improving habitat or actually

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Speaker 2: money and funding towards putting in this kind of work

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Speaker 2: and doing these kinds of projects on your land. And

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Speaker 2: then if you're not a landowner, we're going to discuss

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Speaker 2: about some things that will actually impact the landscape across

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Speaker 2: the country that you very well might be hunting when

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Speaker 2: you're trying to get hunting permission or going through walking

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Speaker 2: access or whatever it might be. The content, the policies,

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Speaker 2: the programs that we're going to talk about today impact

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Speaker 2: all of that. And what we're talking about is the

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Speaker 2: Farm Bill, the twenty well this would be the twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty three Farm Bill that we're still trying to get

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Speaker 2: approved now in twenty twenty five. We're talking today about

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Speaker 2: the Farm Bill because the Farm Bill, even though it

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Speaker 2: sounds like something just related to the agricultural community, is

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Speaker 2: actually the largest piece of conservation legislation impacting private lands,

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Speaker 2: habitat and conservation work across the entire United States. And

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Speaker 2: we've done a handful of episodes over the last ten

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Speaker 2: plus years about this, and we continue to talk about

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Speaker 2: it because it is just that important. And two years

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Speaker 2: ago we had our last chat on this one and

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Speaker 2: we were joined by two folks from the Theodore Roosevelt

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Speaker 2: Conservation Partnership. One of these people was Aaron Field. He

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Speaker 2: is their director of Private Lands Conservation, and he is

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Speaker 2: back with me today to discuss why we are having

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Speaker 2: to have this same conversation just two years after the

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Speaker 2: first one, because, guess what, that farm bill that we

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Speaker 2: hoped to have passed with strong funding for conservation programs

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Speaker 2: back in twenty twenty three, it did not happen. It

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Speaker 2: didn't happen in twenty twenty four, and so now here

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Speaker 2: we are again in twenty twenty five, trying to make

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Speaker 2: sure that a farm bill is passed that has adequate

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Speaker 2: funding to make sure that programs such as CRP continue

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Speaker 2: to be funded and able to be accessed by folks

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Speaker 2: like you or the farmer that you hunt on his ground,

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Speaker 2: or the walk in access programs being available that you

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Speaker 2: benefit from in Kansas or Minnesota or Michigan or Montana.

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Speaker 2: The farm bill impacts all that stuff. So whether you

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Speaker 2: own and manage land and want to make sure you

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Speaker 2: can get involved in these programs and have help getting

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Speaker 2: it done, or if you are a private land door

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Speaker 2: knock and hunter, or you want to get on that

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Speaker 2: access program land. The farm Bill will help, but we

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Speaker 2: need to make sure that something gets passed. We need

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Speaker 2: to make sure that the right bill gets passed, and

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Speaker 2: that is what Aaron and I discussed today. We discuss

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Speaker 2: in much greater detail why this piece of legislation, why

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Speaker 2: the Farm Bill is relevant to us as hunters, and

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Speaker 2: then we discuss what those most important programs are within it,

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Speaker 2: including CRP, which a lot of us have heard about

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Speaker 2: but maybe don't understand in detail, and the voluntary the

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Speaker 2: VPA hip, which is like a habitat access program that

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Speaker 2: funds things like Kansas's walking areas and others. So we're

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Speaker 2: going to talk about all that, and then we're going

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Speaker 2: to discuss why we're in the situation now where we

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Speaker 2: still don't have a new farm bill approved in past,

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Speaker 2: and then what we as individuals can do, What can

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Speaker 2: we kind of difference can we make to make sure

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Speaker 2: this thing finally happens to make sure that we don't

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Speaker 2: lose more CRP land out there, to make sure that

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Speaker 2: we do have the services and the quality habitat out

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Speaker 2: there that we need to have healthy deer and pheasant

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Speaker 2: and grouse and whatever other wildlife we care about it's

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Speaker 2: all dependent on this kind of habitat and the kind

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Speaker 2: projects that the farm bill impacts. So we discuss all

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Speaker 2: that and then finally to wrap it all up, we

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Speaker 2: also talk a little bit about the application of this.

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Speaker 2: So if you are a land owner or manager and

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Speaker 2: you want to get involved and get CRP on your land,

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Speaker 2: or maybe get involved with something called equip where you

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Speaker 2: can be you know, advised on how to make a

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Speaker 2: habitat improvement on your land, and then also have cost share,

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Speaker 2: so where the government will pay for a portion of

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Speaker 2: your seed or a portion of your herbis side, or

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Speaker 2: a portion of the work that needs to get done.

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Speaker 2: They'll help with that payment. If you want to get

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Speaker 2: involved in anything like that so that you can improve

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Speaker 2: your habitat for deer and other wildlife and do it

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Speaker 2: more economically or with some added expertise, Aaron's going to

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Speaker 2: talk about how to get that done, how to get

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Speaker 2: involved with these programs, what all that entails. So that's

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Speaker 2: the plan for today. It is I was going to

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Speaker 2: say action packed. I suppose any kind of conversation about

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Speaker 2: policy and legislation probably doesn't sound action packed, but I'm

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Speaker 2: telling you this stuff really matters. Across Whitetail Country, and

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Speaker 2: if you're a hunter anywhere in the country, there's without

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Speaker 2: a doubt open lands that are owned by private landowners

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Speaker 2: but are benefiting the public. Whether you hunt by permission

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Speaker 2: or on walk and access or public land next door,

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Speaker 2: or just on your very own land, this stuff is

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Speaker 2: impacting you no matter where you are. It's really important.

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Speaker 2: So I really appreciate you listening to this one. I

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Speaker 2: appreciate you getting in touch with your lawmakers about this stuff.

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Speaker 2: Or if you are someone who owns land and wants

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Speaker 2: to do good work on your ground, I appreciate that

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Speaker 2: work too. So, without any further ado, here's my chat

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Speaker 2: with Aaron Field about the future of the farm Bill

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Speaker 2: and private lands conservation in America. All right with me

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Speaker 2: now once again, several years later, is Aaron Field?

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Speaker 3: Hi, doing aerin, Doing pretty well? Mark? How about yourself today?

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Speaker 2: I'm good, I'm good. I appreciate you taking the time

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Speaker 2: to join me. I'm glad that we have well, I

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Speaker 2: guess I'm happy we get to chat again. I'm not

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Speaker 2: so glad that we're talking about something that we talked

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Speaker 2: about two years ago and which has not seen the

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Speaker 2: kind of movement we were hoping we would see in

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Speaker 2: this twenty four month period since our last chat. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. We're talking farm

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Speaker 2: bill today, and for someone who maybe clicked on this

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Speaker 2: one to give it a listen out of curiosity but

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Speaker 2: does not yet really fully understand what the farm bill is,

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Speaker 2: can you give me your elevator pitch on what the

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Speaker 2: farm bill is in relation to conservation and hunters and

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Speaker 2: anglers and why this is relevant to someone that maybe

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Speaker 2: is listening to this podcast that's a diehard deer hunter

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Speaker 2: loves getting outside, maybe Owens land or Manages land.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, probably the simplest way to describe the

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Speaker 4: farm bill to somebody who is mostly interested in the

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Speaker 4: conservation side of things, or the hunting and fishing.

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Speaker 3: Side of things.

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Speaker 4: This is the biggest investment that we as a nation

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Speaker 4: make in conservation, point blank. So our public lands are

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Speaker 4: obviously super important both for you know, wildlife recreation and a.

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Speaker 3: Whole host to other uses.

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Speaker 4: But still more than sixty percent of the land area

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Speaker 4: in this country is privately owned, and if we're ignoring

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Speaker 4: that from a wildlife habitat and access perspective, we're really

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Speaker 4: missing the boat. That's especially true for those of us,

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Speaker 4: you know, in the eastern half of the United States,

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Speaker 4: where public lands are not as accessible, but it's also

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Speaker 4: true as you go further west, you know some of

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Speaker 4: the biggest public land states we've got. If you actually

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Speaker 4: zoom in and look at the role that the private

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Speaker 4: lands in that state are playing in terms of wildlife,

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Speaker 4: in terms of even hunting access or fishing access, you'll

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Speaker 4: find that they have a disproportionate impact. And so the

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Speaker 4: Farm Bill itself is a massive piece of legislation that

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Speaker 4: covers a whole host of issues.

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Speaker 3: But for the.

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Speaker 4: Average hunter, just know that this is the biggest investment

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Speaker 4: in conservation that we.

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Speaker 2: Make, so massive investment in private lands conservation that's a

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Speaker 2: part of this big, huge farm bill. Stuff like the

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Speaker 2: CRP program, which is probably something that stands out to

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Speaker 2: a lot of hunters as something they recognize, equip which

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Speaker 2: is another big one. Can you walk us through a

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Speaker 2: quick high level overview of those two programs and any

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Speaker 2: others that you think are particularly relevant to hunters, because

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Speaker 2: those are kind of like the headliners here as far

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Speaker 2: as programs at the Farm bill funds that actually lead

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Speaker 2: to good stuff happening. On the ground for not just

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Speaker 2: farmers and ranchers, but for deer and pheasants and ducks

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Speaker 2: and all sorts of stuff like that. So, can you

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Speaker 2: walk me through a couple of those headliners that you

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Speaker 2: are actually how the farm bill ends up showing up

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Speaker 2: on the landscape.

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Speaker 4: Sure. Yeah, And something that's important to point out before

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Speaker 4: we start talking through, you know, all these acronyms and

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Speaker 4: various programs that have been created and tweaked and adjusted

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Speaker 4: throughout the years. You know, different countries take different approaches,

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Speaker 4: Different governments take different approaches as to how they how

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Speaker 4: they get good stewardship, good management done, especially on private lands.

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Speaker 4: And I think if you ask ninety nine percent of

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Speaker 4: landowners in this country if they want to do good

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Speaker 4: stewardship on their land, if they're trying to do good

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Speaker 4: stewardship on their land, they're going to.

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Speaker 3: Tell you yes, that's important to me.

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Speaker 4: In the US, the primary mechanism by which we try

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Speaker 4: to get more good conservation work done on private land

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Speaker 4: is through voluntary, incentive based programs. And so this is

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Speaker 4: something that nobody is going out and telling a landowner

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Speaker 4: that they have to participate in. Nobody is going out

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Speaker 4: and saying you know, you must plant a cover crop

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Speaker 4: next year, you must put this into perennial graund. We're

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Speaker 4: working with the landowners, farmers and ranchers, forest landowners, recreational

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Speaker 4: landowners too, who want to do this good work. And

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Speaker 4: I mentioned incentive based, incentive based meaning that rather than

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Speaker 4: having a penalty for you not doing this, we're gonna say, listen,

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Speaker 4: we know it costs money to do good conservation work.

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Speaker 4: You know, I'm managing a small property here myself that

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Speaker 4: I hunt on. There's a lot more I'd like to

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Speaker 4: do if I could afford to do it. And so

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Speaker 4: the programs that that you mentioned, Mark and others are

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Speaker 4: designed to sort of help put.

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Speaker 3: The bill to get that work done.

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Speaker 4: And that's of course beneficial to the landowner who's who's

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Speaker 4: trying to do you know, good conservation work, create wildlife habitat,

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Speaker 4: you know, building long term profitability into their agricultural operation.

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Speaker 4: But it also benefits the rest of us. If we,

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Speaker 4: you know, do something that leads to cleaner water on

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Speaker 4: private land in this country, that's cheaper water treatment plants

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Speaker 4: in our city. If we do something that leads to

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Speaker 4: cleaner airs, that's less respiratory disease. We do something that

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Speaker 4: creates good wildlife habitat. That's obviously more biodiversity and more

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Speaker 4: wildlife on the landscape, which is important for all of us,

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Speaker 4: but especially if.

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Speaker 3: You like to hunt for fish.

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Speaker 4: So you mentioned a couple. One the Conservation Reserve Program

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Speaker 4: the CRP. That's probably the conservation program that mower hunters

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Speaker 4: are aware of than others.

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Speaker 3: And there's a few reasons for that. One it's been around.

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Speaker 4: Longer than some of our other programs, and two it

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Speaker 4: has just a massive outsize impact on creating wildlife habitat.

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Speaker 4: Conservation Reserve Program Essentially, what that does is if you've

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Speaker 4: got crop land land that you've been farming, you know,

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Speaker 4: grown corn and grown weeat on whatever it is, and

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Speaker 4: that land is highly erodable, it's degrading, you're losing top soil,

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Speaker 4: it's not usually not particularly productive. The conservation program provides

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Speaker 4: a financial incentive for you to take that land out

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Speaker 4: of crop production and put it into perennial vegetation. So,

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Speaker 4: you know, a lot of people will think about CRP

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Speaker 4: in South Dakota, for example, and you look at CRP

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Speaker 4: in South Dakota and it'll be a tall grass prairie

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Speaker 4: on what used to be a middling corn crop or

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Speaker 4: a middle and wheat crop. And so from a hunting perspective,

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Speaker 4: one of the limiting factors to wildlife populations across the

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Speaker 4: country and especially in you know, further east throughout the Midwest,

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Speaker 4: it's just a lack of perennial habitat, lack of places

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Speaker 4: for nests, lack of places for deer to bed, lack

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Speaker 4: of places for all sorts of wildlife habitat requirements, and

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Speaker 4: a conservation Reserve program or CRP puts that habitat on

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Speaker 4: the ground to the tune of currently about twenty seven

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Speaker 4: million acres in this country. So it's a huge impact

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Speaker 4: and obviously very important for hunters and anglers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's one of those, like you said, it's

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Speaker 2: a program that not only has name recognition, but it

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Speaker 2: even has like visual recognition, almost over the top in

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Speaker 2: that I think a lot of hunters now if they

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Speaker 2: see any kind of tall, grassy, kind of brushy field,

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Speaker 2: they just call it CRP. It's become like the generic

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Speaker 2: term for any kind of like early secessional grassland habitat.

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Speaker 2: They're like, oh, yeah, that's CRP. Even though it's not

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Speaker 2: necessarily in a conservation reserve program contract. It's become like

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Speaker 2: the CLINICX of wildlife habitat, which is kind of funny,

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Speaker 2: but yeah, I mean, as a deer hunter, if I

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Speaker 2: see that kind of habitat somewhere, that's an amazing right,

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Speaker 2: bright flashing light like hunt here, there's gonna be wildlife.

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Speaker 2: And what I think is important to note for people

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Speaker 2: listening is that programs like this, in this particular case,

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Speaker 2: the CRP program, it's a really big win for you,

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Speaker 2: whether you own land and want to try to, you know,

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Speaker 2: enroll in this and help get some of your costs

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Speaker 2: taken care of to implement some kind of habitat like

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Speaker 2: this yourself, or if you are a non land owning

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Speaker 2: hunter who is simply trying to get access to habitat

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Speaker 2: and access to places, because this is going to improve

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Speaker 2: habitat and improve hunting opportunities on other people's parcels that

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Speaker 2: either you might be able to hunt around or get

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Speaker 2: access to, or or simply like you said, Aaron, it's

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Speaker 2: going to improve the biodiversity and the health of everything

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Speaker 2: around it when you have this kind of habitat out there.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, CRPS, it just seems like such a huge win.

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Speaker 2: We've lost so much grassland habitat across the country that

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Speaker 2: so many species depend on. Grassland birds are I think,

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Speaker 2: one example of a set of species that have really

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Speaker 2: declined and have been in free fall over the last

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Speaker 2: fifty years because of the lack of that kind of habitat.

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Speaker 2: All sorts of upland birds of course, have been in

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Speaker 2: some places in decline because of loss of that kind

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Speaker 2: of habitat. So I feel like CRP has been one

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Speaker 2: of the big kind of plugs in the leaky boat

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Speaker 2: keeping some of these critters around. If it weren't for that,

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Speaker 2: probably a lot of this stuff would be in even

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Speaker 2: bigger trouble not, wouldn't it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's absolutely true. And you point out grassland birds,

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Speaker 4: which is a great one to point out is the

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Speaker 4: fastest declaiming declining clade of wildlife on the continent. And honestly,

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Speaker 4: until recently, we could look at things like ducks and say, well,

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Speaker 4: we've been doing pretty good on ducks, but we've come

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Speaker 4: to a point now where where there's even some evidence

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Speaker 4: that ducks are in a little bit of trouble, and

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Speaker 4: so we need to keep keep going with our wetlands work,

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Speaker 4: and the CRP definitely helps with wetlands work as well,

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Speaker 4: but we need to think about those uplands and the

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Speaker 4: around those wetlands too. And he also brought up a

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Speaker 4: really good point. You know, I've been asked before when

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Speaker 4: I talk about these programs, you know, well, that's great.

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Speaker 4: It helps them make better wildlife habitat on their land.

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Speaker 4: How to that benefit me? And I think the access

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Speaker 4: piece is very important, and that's something the TRCP works

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Speaker 4: on a lot, is finding ways to make sure hunters

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Speaker 4: and anglers have access to quality places.

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Speaker 3: To hunt and fish.

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Speaker 4: But just simply the wildlife population benefits of doing good

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Speaker 4: conservation work on private land, even if you know, I

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Speaker 4: might never get to hunt that particular parcel, but I'm

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Speaker 4: sure glad to see good habitat on the land that's

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Speaker 4: in the area, even of where I'm going to be

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Speaker 4: hunting or fishing. It's just so important that we find

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Speaker 4: ways to incentivize that.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and there's there's the spillover effect, right. I

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Speaker 2: mean they've found this with with national parks or wildlife

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Speaker 2: reserves or anywhere you can get quality habitat on the

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Speaker 2: ground in a relatively improved or protected landscape. It's going

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Speaker 2: to spill over into the surrounding areas too, and the

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Speaker 2: more of those cores you get, the better it is everywhere.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, it's kind of a no brainer from the

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Speaker 2: perspective of someone who wants to see more wildlife out

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Speaker 2: there and healthier landscapes. But you mentioned access. The Farm

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Speaker 2: bill actually has a hell of an access program within

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Speaker 2: it too. Can you touch on that.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So there is only one federal program that is

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Speaker 4: specifically designed to incentivize access for hunting and fishing on

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Speaker 4: private lands, and we're very proud of that program. It's

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Speaker 4: a Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program vpa HIP.

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Speaker 4: Not a great acronym, it's a great program though. The

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Speaker 4: vpa HIP essentially it's a block grant program, and so

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Speaker 4: rather than so, the CRP is designed at a national

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Speaker 4: scale and it's implemented throughout the country. Vpa HIP is

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Speaker 4: a funding source for state level programs, and so, depending

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Speaker 4: on where you are in the country, most states have

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Speaker 4: some version of a private land access program. Here in Minnesota,

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Speaker 4: I go to Milwaukeean area, and that's someplace that I

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Speaker 4: can walk in and hunt anytime during the season for

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Speaker 4: whatever species I'm looking for. But if I go over

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Speaker 4: to North Dakota, it'd be called plots private Land open

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Speaker 4: to Sportsmen, you know, Kansas WHA's. There's a variety of programs,

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Speaker 4: all with different variations on what the specific regulation and

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Speaker 4: what the specific acronym is, but they're all designed to

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Speaker 4: do the same thing, and that's create hunting and fishing

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Speaker 4: access on private lands. So what vpa HIP does is

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Speaker 4: state wildlife agencies design an access program that creates the

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Speaker 4: access that hunters and english and their state need and want.

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Speaker 4: That is targeted to geographies where they really need to

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Speaker 4: create more access, and that works for landowners in the state.

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Speaker 4: Once they have that program created, they can apply for

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Speaker 4: funding through the vpa HIP Voluntary Public Access and Habitat

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Speaker 4: CETIVE program to support that program. And so what we

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Speaker 4: get is this really locally tailored set of access programs

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Speaker 4: for private land with some federal support so that you

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Speaker 4: can either get better habitat enrolled, or you can get

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Speaker 4: more habitat and rolled.

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Speaker 3: Or you can get both.

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Speaker 4: And it's just it's a program that it has support

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Speaker 4: pretty much across the board, bipartisan support in Congress, the

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Speaker 4: states really love it. Tribes are eligible as well, and

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Speaker 4: like I said, it's designed to work with landowners in

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Speaker 4: a way that landowners can support.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So the farm bill funds incredible habitat improvements and

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Speaker 2: it helps fund getting folks access to utilize these places

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Speaker 2: in a hunting or fishing or any kind of way. Right.

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Speaker 2: And then there's also EQUIP which is another program within

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Speaker 2: the bill that I think does a lot of the former,

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Speaker 2: which is the improvement side of things. Can you touch

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Speaker 2: on that a little bit as well.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So the Environmental Quality Insteatives program super popular program

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Speaker 4: with landowners. It's one of our most flexible conservation programs.

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Speaker 4: And so what will happen And remind me to talk

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Speaker 4: a little bit about sort of the conservation planning and

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Speaker 4: technical assistance side of this too, But what will happen

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Speaker 4: as a landowner. I'll give you an example. A friend

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Speaker 4: of mine, they've got cattle and crop operation here in

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Speaker 4: western Minnesota. He was talking to me, he said, Man,

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Speaker 4: I'd really like to do some more cover crops. One

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Speaker 4: to prevent soil erosion and improve soil health. And two

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Speaker 4: because hey, that's going to give us a little more

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Speaker 4: forage for our cattle in the fall and potentially in

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Speaker 4: the spring. That's going to take some pressure off our pastures.

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Speaker 4: We're going to have better habitat out there.

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Speaker 3: It's it's just.

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Speaker 4: A really good idea to do. It's something that we'd

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Speaker 4: like to implement here on our farm. That's that's pretty expensive.

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Speaker 4: You know, if you've ever bought seed, either whether it's

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Speaker 4: for a food plot or a habitat project, or if

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Speaker 4: you're a farmer yourself, seats aren't cheap. And so what

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Speaker 4: this friend of mine did is they went down to

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Speaker 4: their local n RCS Natural Resources Conservation Service office and

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Speaker 4: they put in an application for EQUIP and assuming that

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Speaker 4: application is funded, which is a pretty big question mark,

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Speaker 4: actually they'll essentially get about half their seat costs paid

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Speaker 4: for to do those cover crops. And again that's recognizing

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Speaker 4: that this individual landowner's conservation action benefits the rest of

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Speaker 4: us to such a degree that it's worth us investing in.

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Speaker 4: But besides cover crop, equip can support all sorts of

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Speaker 4: things that can support nutrient management plans. So we put

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Speaker 4: a little less fertilizer into streams, which is obviously important

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Speaker 4: from a fisheries perspective. It can support establishing conservation cover.

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Speaker 4: So if you've got one example would be if you've

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Speaker 4: got an irrigated field, especially in the sort of high

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Speaker 4: planes area where it's where it's real dry, those pivot

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Speaker 4: corners where the irrigation doesn't reach the corner of the field,

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Speaker 4: oftentimes they're not not very productive at all. So EQUIP

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Speaker 4: could fund planting that to habitat. And actually, if you

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Speaker 4: go down to some of those states, they've created access

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Speaker 4: programs so you can hunt those pivot corners and you're

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Speaker 4: hunting a relatively small chunk, but man, there can be

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Speaker 4: a lot of birds in that chunk. And just you

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Speaker 4: know down the list there's livestock practices. You know, EQUIP

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Speaker 4: can be used to support wildlife friendly fencing, so we're

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Speaker 4: hanging up fewer deer, elk, pronghorn that are trying to

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Speaker 4: move across a landscape. One of the coolest ways that

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Speaker 4: we use EQUIP along with some of our other programs,

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Speaker 4: is through through initiative called Working Lands for Wildlife. And

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Speaker 4: what that does is it takes a landscape level approach

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Speaker 4: to okay, what are the conservation needs in say the

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Speaker 4: sagebrush step, and then it targets those EQUIP practices to

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Speaker 4: where they're going to make the most difference for wildlife.

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Speaker 3: So let's put the let's.

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Speaker 4: Make sure we have wildlife friendly fence along that migration

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Speaker 4: corridor that mule are using to come to winter range,

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Speaker 4: things like that. So again, really flexible program usually relatively

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Speaker 4: short term contracts for landowners as compared to the CRP

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Speaker 4: is a ten or a fifteen year contract, which works

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Speaker 4: great for some folks. It gives you that certainty in planning.

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Speaker 4: But for others, you know, they're a lot more comfortable

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Speaker 4: doing something on the three year timescale, and so EQUIP

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Speaker 4: can deliver that for folks.

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Speaker 2: So the EQUIP program, this CRP program, VPA hip, and

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Speaker 2: I know there's there's a number of other programs too,

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Speaker 2: some ease mints and things like that. All of this,

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Speaker 2: as you mentioned, adds up to the largest investment in

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Speaker 2: private lands conservation across the country. Year after a year

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Speaker 2: after a year, it's a big, huge, important thing that's

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Speaker 2: protected and conserved and improved a lot of land across

435
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,440
Speaker 2: the United States that otherwise would probably be in much

436
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:28,359
Speaker 2: much worse health.

437
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:28,840
Speaker 3: Right now.

438
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:33,119
Speaker 2: We talked about this in twenty twenty three, because every

439
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 2: I think it's every five years right, a new farm

440
00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:39,440
Speaker 2: bill is supposed to be passed. We're having this very

441
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:41,800
Speaker 2: similar conversation in twenty twenty three about, hey, we got

442
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:43,720
Speaker 2: to get the next one out, We've got to move

443
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 2: it forward. Here's what we're hoping gets done. But here

444
00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:51,200
Speaker 2: we are now in twenty twenty five and we still

445
00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:54,280
Speaker 2: don't have a new farm bill. What's going on, Aaron?

446
00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:56,720
Speaker 2: Why are we in this position? And what does it

447
00:25:56,840 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 2: mean for these programs that we're talking about? You know,

448
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:02,720
Speaker 2: is is stuff still getting done? Are people still being

449
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:04,760
Speaker 2: incentivized to take this kind of action nowt or we

450
00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:07,880
Speaker 2: can start losing this habitat or losing these opportunities.

451
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:08,840
Speaker 3: Yeah.

452
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,919
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is pretty frustrating to be having a very

453
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:14,760
Speaker 4: similar conversation that we had a couple of years ago

454
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 4: about this bill, and it really underscores the importance of

455
00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:25,560
Speaker 4: hunters and anglers getting involved in this process, being informed on,

456
00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:28,800
Speaker 4: you know, what these programs are, what they're actually accomplishing,

457
00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:31,679
Speaker 4: and then making sure that their elected officials know that

458
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 4: they're important to them. You know, farm bill is a

459
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 4: big piece of legislation and includes other things besides conservation.

460
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:42,680
Speaker 4: It includes you know, prop insurance and commodity support and

461
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,720
Speaker 4: basically the farm safety net to keep people farming over

462
00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:46,159
Speaker 4: a long.

463
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 3: Period of time.

464
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:50,040
Speaker 4: So obviously the a community is highly invested in getting

465
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 4: farm bills done, but that community is smaller than it

466
00:26:55,160 --> 00:27:00,000
Speaker 4: used to be. Farmers used to make up something like

467
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,399
Speaker 4: twenty five percent of the population when we passed the

468
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:04,800
Speaker 4: first farm bill about ninety years ago, the first thing

469
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:06,960
Speaker 4: we called a farm bill. That's less than one percent

470
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 4: of the population now. And although that's I mean, it's

471
00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:14,280
Speaker 4: a super important demographic, it's a super important, you know,

472
00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:18,720
Speaker 4: career path, it's a major economic driver in rural America.

473
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:22,480
Speaker 4: It's a relatively small voting block. At the same time,

474
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:27,960
Speaker 4: and so it can't just be the ad groups that

475
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 4: are out there saying, hey, we need to get a

476
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 4: farm bill done. We need the conservation community involved in this.

477
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:37,199
Speaker 4: We need hunters and anglers speaking up, being informed on

478
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:40,920
Speaker 4: these programs and talking about their importance. So, Mark, you

479
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:44,199
Speaker 4: mentioned we passed farm bills about every five years. They

480
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,600
Speaker 4: tend to be written as a five year bill, meaning

481
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:52,479
Speaker 4: the provisions within the bill expire after five years. So

482
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:56,919
Speaker 4: we've been doing that since we had a really conservation

483
00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:01,199
Speaker 4: focused bill that started in nineteen eighty five, but the

484
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:03,200
Speaker 4: last time we passed a farm bill in the US

485
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:05,359
Speaker 4: was in twenty eighteen, which means we're now in the

486
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:09,240
Speaker 4: longest stretch without a new farm bill in the modern year.

487
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:14,960
Speaker 4: There's a couple of practical issues with that. The biggest

488
00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:20,359
Speaker 4: one that I'll point out is we haven't updated policy

489
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:23,520
Speaker 4: around our farm programs in this country since twenty eighteen,

490
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:24,879
Speaker 4: and a lot of that would have been written in

491
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 4: twenty seventeen, so we're dealing with, you know, seven eight

492
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:31,639
Speaker 4: nine year old ideas on how we should manage these programs.

493
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 4: The other one is when a farm bill does expire, yes,

494
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 4: you're you're absolutely right, these programs end, so we would

495
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,560
Speaker 4: not be enrolling in the conservation reserve program, we would

496
00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:45,480
Speaker 4: not be signing equipped contracts to get people to get

497
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:49,280
Speaker 4: work done. That does get mitivate gated and has been

498
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 4: mitigated so far by passing what we call farm bill extensions.

499
00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:57,240
Speaker 4: We passed a one year farm bill extension shortly after

500
00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 4: the bill expired in twenty twenty three, past another one

501
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:05,560
Speaker 4: year extension after that extension expired, so we're about halfway

502
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:08,560
Speaker 4: through the second one year extension of the twenty eighteen

503
00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:09,080
Speaker 4: farm bill.

504
00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 3: Right now.

505
00:29:09,720 --> 00:29:13,920
Speaker 4: What that means is the programs are still going forward.

506
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 4: We're still doing the good conservation work. We just haven't

507
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:20,880
Speaker 4: had an opportunity to update those programs in the interim.

508
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:24,400
Speaker 4: And there's been a few barriers to that. I mean,

509
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 4: if you've been paying attention to Congress at all over

510
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:32,480
Speaker 4: the last decade or so, you've probably seen that partisanship

511
00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:37,240
Speaker 4: isn't getting any smaller, it's not becoming less of an issue.

512
00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:41,320
Speaker 4: And traditionally, and I think still today, the Agriculture committees

513
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 4: in Congress and those are.

514
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:44,880
Speaker 3: That's the group that writes.

515
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:49,080
Speaker 4: And passes a farm bill, has been the most bipartisan

516
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 4: committee on Capitol Hill. It's long been recognized that agg

517
00:29:55,280 --> 00:30:00,360
Speaker 4: policy will not move as a partisan bill end up

518
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:05,880
Speaker 4: getting some really interesting sort of geographical alliances built across

519
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 4: party lines when you start talking about a farm bill,

520
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:13,080
Speaker 4: and so traditionally that has helped farm bills move even

521
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:17,320
Speaker 4: when other things couldn't. But like I said, it hasn't

522
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:20,680
Speaker 4: gotten any easier to move things through Congress in recent years,

523
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 4: and the farm bill has not been an exception to that.

524
00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:28,240
Speaker 4: Another big factor was, you know, last year was a

525
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:33,560
Speaker 4: presidential election year. It's really difficult to encourage folks to

526
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 4: go get bipartisan wins during a presidential election year, so

527
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:38,960
Speaker 4: I think that was one of our big hang ups.

528
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 4: I still retain a fair bit of optimism going into

529
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:49,560
Speaker 4: this Congress, which started in January of this year, for

530
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:52,280
Speaker 4: a few reasons. One, I think we've got some fantastic

531
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:55,040
Speaker 4: leadership on the egg committees, folks who are used to

532
00:30:55,160 --> 00:31:03,600
Speaker 4: doing bipartisan work from both parties. We had a farm

533
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:05,840
Speaker 4: bill introduced in the House at the end of last

534
00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 4: Congress that passed out of committee, which meant it had

535
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:12,480
Speaker 4: some traction and has some potential to move forward. And

536
00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:15,520
Speaker 4: so we're not starting from scratch, which is which is

537
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:21,360
Speaker 4: another reason for optimism. But early this year we've got

538
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:24,000
Speaker 4: you know, Republicans in control of both chambers. Now we've

539
00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:26,240
Speaker 4: got a Republican in the White House, and so the

540
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 4: Republican Party is working on making sure they get their

541
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 4: priorities through, which are obviously broader than just egg policy.

542
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:37,680
Speaker 4: And so I think we've got to get through things

543
00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 4: like a reconciliation package, which we probably don't need to

544
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 4: get into the weeds done here, Mark, But towards the

545
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:47,320
Speaker 4: later this summer into the fall, I'm hopeful that we'll

546
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:50,440
Speaker 4: start to really see some movement towards getting a farm

547
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:53,200
Speaker 4: built done that we haven't really seen recently.

548
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:57,360
Speaker 2: And how long does that process take? So once they

549
00:31:57,600 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 2: push this other stuff aside and they're able to focus

550
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:04,640
Speaker 2: the farm bill and hypothetically we have the people in

551
00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:08,200
Speaker 2: place to move something forward finally, hopefully, is that a

552
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 2: six month process? Is that a year and a half process?

553
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:15,040
Speaker 2: You know, when will people actually be voting to make

554
00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:17,560
Speaker 2: this thing reality and we'll be able to get on

555
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:21,480
Speaker 2: the horn and holler at our elected officials to tell

556
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:23,040
Speaker 2: them vote this thing through.

557
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean you can start doing that now.

558
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:31,800
Speaker 4: And there's a few reasons for that. One because it's

559
00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 4: always helpful, and we've got tools for that if you're

560
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 4: interested in getting involved, and we could talk more about

561
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:40,680
Speaker 4: that too, Mark at TRCP dot org. We've got some

562
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:45,240
Speaker 4: action alerts running to help folks send that message. Another

563
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:48,920
Speaker 4: reason that folks might be thinking about getting involved right

564
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 4: now is members of Congress will introduce what we call

565
00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:58,320
Speaker 4: marker bills, and these are bills that are intended to

566
00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 4: influence the farm bill and it moves. And so there's

567
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:04,520
Speaker 4: just one example of program that we already talked about

568
00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:07,840
Speaker 4: the Voluntary Public Access and Habitat and Centive program. There

569
00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:12,120
Speaker 4: is a bipartisan bi camera bill in Congress introduced in

570
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:15,680
Speaker 4: Congress right now called the Voluntary Public Access Improvement Act,

571
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:18,960
Speaker 4: And what that bill would do is it reauthorizes the

572
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:23,960
Speaker 4: program which is currently expired, and it would increase the

573
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,400
Speaker 4: funding from fifty million dollars over the life of a

574
00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 4: farm bill to one hundred and fifty million dollars over

575
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 4: the life of farm bill, so three times the access.

576
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:35,200
Speaker 4: And so we've got an action alert running right now

577
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:38,680
Speaker 4: on our website where folks can click on that and

578
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 4: it's actually kind of neat technology I'm excited about. If

579
00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:48,479
Speaker 4: you're member of Congress or your senator has already co

580
00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:51,760
Speaker 4: sponsored that bill, it'll send them a thank you for

581
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,840
Speaker 4: co sponsoring that bill. And if your member of Congress

582
00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 4: has not, it'll send them an ask saying, hey, as

583
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:02,000
Speaker 4: a constituent, appreciate if you would if you would co

584
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 4: sponsor this bill so folks can get involved right now.

585
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:08,120
Speaker 4: And if if you're not ready to take that step

586
00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:12,000
Speaker 4: of making an ask, absolutely, you know, just just making

587
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:12,880
Speaker 4: sure that you're well.

588
00:34:12,680 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 3: Informed is super important.

589
00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:17,960
Speaker 4: But timing wise, you know what what folks will tell

590
00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:19,839
Speaker 4: you is people start writing the next farm bill as

591
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:21,399
Speaker 4: soon as the ink is dry on the next one.

592
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:25,879
Speaker 4: So the Egg Committee members will be out as soon

593
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:28,960
Speaker 4: as the farm bill passes. They're out listening to their constituents,

594
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:32,239
Speaker 4: meeting with stakeholder groups, and hearing what changes.

595
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:32,760
Speaker 3: Might need to happen.

596
00:34:32,840 --> 00:34:37,600
Speaker 4: But where we're sitting now, I mentioned Chairman G. T.

597
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,600
Speaker 4: Thompson has a bill that was introduced in the House

598
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:45,400
Speaker 4: last session, made it through committee, and so I imagine he

599
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:49,719
Speaker 4: is working with his Democratic counterparts to make tweaks to

600
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:54,279
Speaker 4: that bill to build bipartisan support moving forward. But that

601
00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:59,160
Speaker 4: bill is largely written at this point, and so theoretically

602
00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 4: they could move pretty qui in the House, where you know,

603
00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:03,560
Speaker 4: you get a bill introduced and marked up within a

604
00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:08,839
Speaker 4: few weeks, and you know, whenever there was four time

605
00:35:09,120 --> 00:35:12,080
Speaker 4: for a vote, it could move fairly quickly. I think

606
00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 4: on the Senate side, we've got a new ranking member,

607
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:19,600
Speaker 4: which would be the top ranking Democrat on the committee

608
00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:24,960
Speaker 4: in Senator Amy Klobashar Minnesota, and so I think there's

609
00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 4: some work going on on the Senate side to make

610
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:32,560
Speaker 4: sure that Chairman Bozeman and ranking Member Cloba shar are

611
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:35,120
Speaker 4: you know, aligned on what that farm bill needs to

612
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:39,040
Speaker 4: look like? And so again, I think they can move

613
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:41,919
Speaker 4: relatively quickly. We've been working on bill techs for years.

614
00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:44,920
Speaker 4: Committee staff have been It's amazing how much work that

615
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:51,279
Speaker 4: those folks put into these pieces of legislation. But all

616
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:54,320
Speaker 4: that to say, there are still some pretty big barriers

617
00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 4: to something happening this year. Namely, Congress is pretty distracted

618
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:02,880
Speaker 4: right now with things like reconciliation and debt ceiling and

619
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:09,920
Speaker 4: budget resolutions, the appropriations process, And so if I was

620
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:12,360
Speaker 4: a betting man and I quit being a betting man

621
00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:17,000
Speaker 4: because of spending time working on farm bills, I think

622
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:18,879
Speaker 4: it's going to be pretty challenging to get something done

623
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:19,319
Speaker 4: this fault.

624
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,080
Speaker 3: But I think early next year they really could, We

625
00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 3: really could see some motion.

626
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:28,800
Speaker 2: You've talked about appropriations and reconciliation and all this budget stuff,

627
00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:31,600
Speaker 2: and you know, as you said, there's there's a lot

628
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 2: going on right now. There's a lot of momentum around

629
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:39,399
Speaker 2: cost cutting, pulling, funding, freezing, funding, et cetera, across all

630
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:44,719
Speaker 2: sorts of agencies and all sorts of programs. How might

631
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 2: that impact the farm bill? How you know, is a

632
00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:54,000
Speaker 2: chainsaw going to be taken to this thing in one

633
00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:57,000
Speaker 2: form or another. Is that a possible thing we need

634
00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:58,200
Speaker 2: to be concerned about.

635
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 3: I don't think that that's especially likely.

636
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:05,360
Speaker 4: And the reason I say that is because of the strong,

637
00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:09,759
Speaker 4: strong bipartisan support that these programs and provisions within the

638
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:15,239
Speaker 4: Farm Bill have. I think that's true, especially on the

639
00:37:15,280 --> 00:37:17,799
Speaker 4: A Committee, the people who spend a lot of time

640
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:20,080
Speaker 4: thinking about this, but I think it's true across Congress

641
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:20,520
Speaker 4: as well.

642
00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:22,320
Speaker 3: If you look.

643
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 4: At, you know, the number of votes that farm bills

644
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:29,480
Speaker 4: have generated in the past, you'll see that it's one

645
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 4: of the most bipartisan things that Congress does. And so

646
00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:36,680
Speaker 4: I'm I'm optimistic that that a farm bill will move

647
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:40,279
Speaker 4: that you know, all of our stakeholder groups can can

648
00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 4: be proud of and happy with. As far as you know,

649
00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:47,960
Speaker 4: other other programs, I can really only speak to USDA,

650
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,640
Speaker 4: especially at the NRCS. There's a lot going on across

651
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:54,600
Speaker 4: the federal government. Those are really outside my area expertise.

652
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:58,960
Speaker 4: I should also note it's early April today, and you know,

653
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:01,040
Speaker 4: I shut my email offer this podcast.

654
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:02,640
Speaker 3: Who knows what happens during this hour?

655
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:06,319
Speaker 4: But short answer is it's really too early to say,

656
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:10,520
Speaker 4: I know that's not particularly satisfying, but we're a couple months,

657
00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 4: a few months into a new presidential administration. In any turnover,

658
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:18,640
Speaker 4: any change in administration, especially from one party to the other,

659
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 4: there's going to be a lot of changes implemented and

660
00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:24,600
Speaker 4: that can feel a lot like whiplash. And I think

661
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:27,080
Speaker 4: that's kind of where most of us are sitting right now.

662
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:30,000
Speaker 3: Our job at.

663
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:36,239
Speaker 4: TRCP is not really to shout from the rooftops. Necessarily.

664
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:38,640
Speaker 4: We're trying to work with those decision makers and work

665
00:38:38,680 --> 00:38:42,640
Speaker 4: with our partners so that we have solutions rather than

666
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:48,719
Speaker 4: you know, just necessarily pointing out problems USDA. If you

667
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:53,880
Speaker 4: pay attention to sort of the leadership that's being appointed

668
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:57,480
Speaker 4: at USTA, that's that's really happening right now. And so

669
00:38:57,560 --> 00:38:59,359
Speaker 4: you've got folks who are just showing up to their

670
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:04,000
Speaker 4: desk and getting in position and starting to implement some

671
00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:08,200
Speaker 4: of these programs you mentioned a pause. We saw initially

672
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:10,799
Speaker 4: a pause on a lot of programs as this administration

673
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:13,719
Speaker 4: started getting staff in place, and that was really disconcerting

674
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:16,040
Speaker 4: to a lot of people, especially if you were a

675
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:20,719
Speaker 4: farmer or rancher. You know, in some cases folks had

676
00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:24,680
Speaker 4: you know, done work or purchased materials, and they were

677
00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:27,759
Speaker 4: waiting to be reimbursed for that while they were trying

678
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:30,160
Speaker 4: to purchase their inputs for an upcoming crop year.

679
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:32,160
Speaker 3: That was really.

680
00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:34,880
Speaker 4: Stressful for a lot of folks. But as it sits

681
00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:39,400
Speaker 4: today again, as we're talking right now, it appears that

682
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:41,640
Speaker 4: much of that funding is beginning to move, especially the

683
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 4: stuff that's going directly to farmers and ranchers, and really

684
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:50,240
Speaker 4: happy to see that. It's a really important step.

685
00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:53,239
Speaker 3: Yeah.

686
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:57,520
Speaker 4: The other piece, mark is the staffing side of things.

687
00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:02,719
Speaker 4: If uh, what we all want, at least in the

688
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:05,239
Speaker 4: conservation community is if if we've got a landowner who

689
00:40:05,239 --> 00:40:08,040
Speaker 4: wants to do good conservation work, we want them to

690
00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:10,480
Speaker 4: be able to talk to a human being, get their

691
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:15,000
Speaker 4: questions answered, get their you know, resource concerns identified, and

692
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:17,160
Speaker 4: we want a conservation plan made and we want it

693
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 4: to be simple and easy and quick for that landowner

694
00:40:19,600 --> 00:40:22,319
Speaker 4: who's trying to to to you know, do good work

695
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 4: for the rest of us. For years now, and this

696
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:28,320
Speaker 4: this is not new. For years, we've been asking the

697
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:34,840
Speaker 4: USDA staff, especially at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, to.

698
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:35,440
Speaker 3: Do more with less.

699
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:40,440
Speaker 4: We've had a lot of retirement in that agency, some

700
00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:42,799
Speaker 4: of that was related to COVID. Some of that was

701
00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:47,880
Speaker 4: just general attrition as folks aged out of the workforce.

702
00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:50,960
Speaker 4: But we've lost a lot of expertise, and we've lost

703
00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:54,480
Speaker 4: a lot of institutional knowledge, and a lot of cases

704
00:40:54,520 --> 00:41:00,400
Speaker 4: they just those positions haven't been filled and so that

705
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:02,839
Speaker 4: would be amplified if we start to see, you know,

706
00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:12,000
Speaker 4: further cuts among those staff. So anyway, we just we

707
00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:14,920
Speaker 4: need to work on finding solutions and making sure that

708
00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:18,160
Speaker 4: we can actually get this conservation on the ground. And

709
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:20,279
Speaker 4: there's a few different ways that this is done too.

710
00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:25,200
Speaker 4: I didn't talk about the partnership model, and so a

711
00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:29,160
Speaker 4: lot of a lot of the conservation planning and program

712
00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:35,040
Speaker 4: enrollment that's done for these programs is done through conservation

713
00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:39,800
Speaker 4: nonprofit organizations and there isn't really a much more efficient

714
00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:44,279
Speaker 4: model than USDA partnering with groups like that to get

715
00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:45,600
Speaker 4: this work done.

716
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:51,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, speaking of conservation funding and work getting done, you know,

717
00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:54,640
Speaker 2: last time we chatted two years ago, one of the

718
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:57,279
Speaker 2: most important things that you guys had talked about was

719
00:41:57,320 --> 00:42:00,640
Speaker 2: the fact that there had been this twenty dollars excuse me,

720
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:06,560
Speaker 2: twenty billion dollar addition to the conservation title of the

721
00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:10,600
Speaker 2: Farm Bill that came from the IRA Funds Inflation Reduction

722
00:42:10,719 --> 00:42:16,200
Speaker 2: Act essentially directed an additional twenty billion dollars in funding

723
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 2: towards these programs. And one of the big asks that

724
00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 2: you guys had mentioned that was being prioritized within future

725
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:26,920
Speaker 2: negotiations is trying to make sure that funding is permanent

726
00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:30,080
Speaker 2: and that that is included in future iterations of the

727
00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:33,680
Speaker 2: Farm bill. Where do we stand with that with the

728
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:36,239
Speaker 2: new Farm Bill that they're discussing right now, Does it

729
00:42:36,239 --> 00:42:38,719
Speaker 2: look like that's going to happen. Is this whole funding

730
00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:41,000
Speaker 2: challenge that we've been talking about, is that going to

731
00:42:41,080 --> 00:42:44,440
Speaker 2: possibly lead to that disappearing or no? Any idea?

732
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:48,320
Speaker 4: Yeah, So, one of the biggest problems with these programs

733
00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:52,919
Speaker 4: is simply the lack of funding that's allocated toward them.

734
00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:58,279
Speaker 4: And so right now, even with an additional influx of

735
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:02,840
Speaker 4: funding through you mentioned through the Reduction Act, depending on

736
00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:07,080
Speaker 4: what program you're talking about, we fund somewhere between fifteen

737
00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:11,120
Speaker 4: and thirty five percent of qualified applicants who come in.

738
00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:14,760
Speaker 4: So if I'm a landowner, I have a good idea

739
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:17,359
Speaker 4: that's going to be beneficial for all of us, I

740
00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:20,239
Speaker 4: still only have about a twenty five percent chance that

741
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:25,479
Speaker 4: it's going to get funded. That's a real problem. There's

742
00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:28,480
Speaker 4: a lot of good conservation work that is not getting

743
00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:32,040
Speaker 4: done right now because of that. And so there is

744
00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:37,800
Speaker 4: an opportunity, through some you know, through some economics and

745
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:43,120
Speaker 4: budgetary maneuvers that I don't fully understand, Mark, there is

746
00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:46,160
Speaker 4: an opportunity that we can make those funds permanent. And

747
00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:48,240
Speaker 4: what that would be is about a twenty five percent

748
00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:52,040
Speaker 4: increase to the conservation baseline. And so it would it

749
00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:57,000
Speaker 4: would absolutely not fully address the shortcoming that these programs

750
00:43:57,040 --> 00:43:58,399
Speaker 4: have in terms of funding.

751
00:43:58,560 --> 00:43:59,799
Speaker 3: But it would make a big dent.

752
00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:05,640
Speaker 4: It would be incredibly beneficial from a habitat perspective. Where

753
00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:09,680
Speaker 4: we sit now is I think actually better than where

754
00:44:09,719 --> 00:44:12,759
Speaker 4: we were a couple of years ago in that we

755
00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:16,600
Speaker 4: have broad by bipartisan support among a committee leadership for

756
00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:22,920
Speaker 4: doing that. I met the leaders of both parties have

757
00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:25,840
Speaker 4: have publicly been talking about this, that this is a

758
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:29,759
Speaker 4: good thing that we can do that is good for

759
00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:33,840
Speaker 4: farmers and ranchers and it's good for conservation and UH.

760
00:44:34,080 --> 00:44:35,959
Speaker 4: In fact, one of the biggest.

761
00:44:35,680 --> 00:44:36,960
Speaker 3: Champions of doing that.

762
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:40,520
Speaker 4: Through UH through an end of year package at the

763
00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:42,720
Speaker 4: end of the year last year was was chairman Thompson

764
00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:45,000
Speaker 4: at the House EG Committee Republican out of Pennsylvania.

765
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:48,880
Speaker 3: And so we're in a good.

766
00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:53,239
Speaker 4: Position in that the folks who have the most ability

767
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:57,120
Speaker 4: to make those decisions understand and appreciate that it's a

768
00:44:57,120 --> 00:44:59,960
Speaker 4: good idea and have been pushing for it. The channel

769
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:04,080
Speaker 4: is that needs to happen as part of another piece

770
00:45:04,120 --> 00:45:06,279
Speaker 4: of legislation. The one that makes the most sense, of course,

771
00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:08,560
Speaker 4: is passing a farm bill, and we already talked a

772
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:10,919
Speaker 4: little bit about the challenges to getting that done this year,

773
00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:15,040
Speaker 4: but there may be some other avenues that Congress could

774
00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:16,080
Speaker 4: explore to get that done.

775
00:45:18,120 --> 00:45:21,240
Speaker 2: So continuing one step further down and kind of looking

776
00:45:21,239 --> 00:45:24,160
Speaker 2: towards the future of the farm bill in these programs,

777
00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:28,840
Speaker 2: are there any other important marker bills or important changes

778
00:45:28,920 --> 00:45:33,640
Speaker 2: or modifications that TRCP or the larger conservation community is

779
00:45:33,680 --> 00:45:38,080
Speaker 2: advocating for that we should talk to our elected officials about.

780
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:42,120
Speaker 3: Yes, dozens.

781
00:45:43,400 --> 00:45:45,920
Speaker 4: If you really want to get in the weeds as

782
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:48,960
Speaker 4: an individual, I'd encourage you to check out the Agriculture

783
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:52,160
Speaker 4: and Wildlife Working Group Farm Bill platform. And that's something

784
00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:55,440
Speaker 4: that we lead a working group of about twenty five

785
00:45:55,880 --> 00:46:00,120
Speaker 4: of the top national, mostly national nonprofit organizations in the

786
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:04,080
Speaker 4: hut fish space. Those groups came together ahead of when

787
00:46:04,080 --> 00:46:06,239
Speaker 4: we were expecting a farm bill in twenty twenty three

788
00:46:06,280 --> 00:46:09,719
Speaker 4: and put together a set of priorities. And we've spent

789
00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:12,520
Speaker 4: the last couple of years, you know, sharing those priorities

790
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:16,400
Speaker 4: with with members of Congress and explaining why these.

791
00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:17,240
Speaker 3: Changes make sense.

792
00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:21,759
Speaker 4: And you know, I won't run through sort of the

793
00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:25,680
Speaker 4: full list of those because nobody would listen until the end.

794
00:46:26,080 --> 00:46:28,399
Speaker 2: Yeah, can you give your top like two or three?

795
00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:29,799
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Absolutely. So.

796
00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:34,879
Speaker 4: One is maintaining our baseline funding for conservation programs. That

797
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,719
Speaker 4: was including farm build baseline plus the Inflation Reduction Act

798
00:46:37,719 --> 00:46:40,080
Speaker 4: dollars that we already talked about, so trying to boost

799
00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:42,839
Speaker 4: that funding. Second, one is just making sure that fish

800
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:47,680
Speaker 4: and wildlife conservation continues to be prioritized equally alongside things

801
00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:52,320
Speaker 4: like soil and water conservation, Continuing to support these voluntary

802
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:56,480
Speaker 4: and incentive based programs, and making sure that USCA has

803
00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:59,000
Speaker 4: enough capacity for conservation.

804
00:46:58,520 --> 00:46:59,000
Speaker 3: Planning and.

805
00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:04,440
Speaker 2: Staff. Yeah, we're talking about Yeah, a.

806
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:07,759
Speaker 4: Couple of marker bills that you might look at. One

807
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:09,960
Speaker 4: was introduced last Congress. We're still waiting to see if

808
00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:12,200
Speaker 4: they will be introduced this Congress. But that's the CRP

809
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:15,160
Speaker 4: Improvement Act, and we already talked about the importance of

810
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:19,360
Speaker 4: the Conservation Reserve Program, but this would make several tweaks

811
00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:21,400
Speaker 4: to that program that would essentially make it look more

812
00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:27,480
Speaker 4: attractive to landowners. And it would also update payment limitations

813
00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:30,359
Speaker 4: in that program that haven't been updated since nineteen eighty five.

814
00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:35,120
Speaker 4: So if you've been tracking inflation at all, you understand

815
00:47:35,200 --> 00:47:38,680
Speaker 4: that dollar in nineteen eighty five is not the same

816
00:47:38,719 --> 00:47:41,680
Speaker 4: as a dollar in twenty twenty five. So that's again

817
00:47:41,719 --> 00:47:47,560
Speaker 4: a bipartisan marker bill, the Conservation Reserve programin Act. We

818
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:51,520
Speaker 4: are also working with some of our partners on potentially

819
00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:56,280
Speaker 4: creating a new easement program. If you're not familiar with

820
00:47:56,280 --> 00:47:59,439
Speaker 4: with conservation easements, but they're essentially are there are most

821
00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:02,920
Speaker 4: durable tool that we have for private lands conservation. So

822
00:48:03,040 --> 00:48:07,840
Speaker 4: essentially a landowner is compensated to give up development rights

823
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:12,440
Speaker 4: on that property. The program that we are looking to

824
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:15,960
Speaker 4: create would be a forest conservation easement program, and essentially

825
00:48:15,960 --> 00:48:18,320
Speaker 4: what that would do is it would keep working forests

826
00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:22,360
Speaker 4: as working forests. Right now, there's a bit of a

827
00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:25,440
Speaker 4: gap in the eastment programs. We have programs that do

828
00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:28,399
Speaker 4: a good job with wetlands. Other than there's way more

829
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:30,560
Speaker 4: demand than we have funding for. We have programs that

830
00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:34,200
Speaker 4: do pretty good job with with working farmland and and

831
00:48:34,239 --> 00:48:35,920
Speaker 4: to some degree ranch land as well.

832
00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:39,160
Speaker 3: We we have a bit of a gap on the

833
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:40,640
Speaker 3: forest side. And obviously, if.

834
00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:43,000
Speaker 4: You're a you know, if you're a deer hunter, you

835
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:46,279
Speaker 4: should care about keeping forests intact, and you probably know

836
00:48:46,280 --> 00:48:48,719
Speaker 4: a little bit about the importance of of you know,

837
00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:53,680
Speaker 4: forest management as opposed to you know, stagnant forests management.

838
00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:56,480
Speaker 4: So that's another market bill that we've been working on.

839
00:48:56,520 --> 00:48:59,880
Speaker 4: We've also been working on a bill that would caut

840
00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:04,760
Speaker 4: of I codify some provisions of a big game pilot

841
00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:10,719
Speaker 4: program that started in Wyoming. It's called Migratory Big Game Initiative. Yeah,

842
00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:12,759
Speaker 4: and so that's we talked about this a little bit

843
00:49:12,760 --> 00:49:15,440
Speaker 4: in a working lens for wildlife context, but that would

844
00:49:16,040 --> 00:49:20,759
Speaker 4: basically allow these programs to work better together, targeted on

845
00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:25,239
Speaker 4: areas where big game move, so that we would you

846
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:29,360
Speaker 4: keep grass line intact and put in wildlife friendly fencing

847
00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:32,040
Speaker 4: and you know, manage grazing in a way that's.

848
00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:33,480
Speaker 3: More compatible with wildlife.

849
00:49:34,239 --> 00:49:36,239
Speaker 4: So those are a few things that we're working on

850
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:38,000
Speaker 4: more specifically within the farm bill.

851
00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:52,399
Speaker 2: I can't remember I'm getting the verbiage right on this,

852
00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:56,520
Speaker 2: but the North American Grasslands Actor or whatever it was

853
00:49:56,760 --> 00:49:59,399
Speaker 2: officially called, with that with something like that fall into

854
00:49:59,480 --> 00:50:01,120
Speaker 2: a future arm bill or is that separate?

855
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:04,319
Speaker 4: So the North American Grassland Conservation Act is going to

856
00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:07,960
Speaker 4: be a great bill. I'm really excited that we're seeing

857
00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:10,480
Speaker 4: some progress towards that. We already talked about the challenges

858
00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:13,880
Speaker 4: that grasslands are facing. That will not be part of

859
00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:16,319
Speaker 4: a farm built that's going to live within the US

860
00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:19,680
Speaker 4: Ficial Wildlife Service, so outside of USDA.

861
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:22,759
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, cool, all right. So I feel like

862
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:28,120
Speaker 2: we've pretty clearly established how important this is, how impactful

863
00:50:28,160 --> 00:50:32,480
Speaker 2: it is for both landowners and non landowners, anyone who

864
00:50:32,560 --> 00:50:36,040
Speaker 2: cares about keeping open space is open and productive and

865
00:50:36,120 --> 00:50:40,239
Speaker 2: providing wildlife habitat all. That seems very important. You've also

866
00:50:40,239 --> 00:50:42,080
Speaker 2: made it pretty clear, though, that we do have some

867
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:44,120
Speaker 2: challenges ahead of us to actually get this thing to

868
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:49,480
Speaker 2: move forward, given all of the stuff going on these days.

869
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:53,279
Speaker 2: For lack of a better term, so what can we do?

870
00:50:53,960 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 2: What did we not do a good enough job of

871
00:50:56,160 --> 00:50:59,080
Speaker 2: two years ago or last year or whatever to get

872
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:02,440
Speaker 2: this thing moving full. What can I, as an individual

873
00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:06,799
Speaker 2: do to help get a quality farm bill pass that's

874
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:09,600
Speaker 2: going to help my hunting in the future of wildlife

875
00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:10,359
Speaker 2: in America.

876
00:51:10,600 --> 00:51:13,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, well I'll give I'll give you some some hot intel.

877
00:51:13,560 --> 00:51:15,840
Speaker 3: I was just in Washington, d C. Last week.

878
00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:18,439
Speaker 4: I met with a congressional staffer who told me, hey,

879
00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:22,920
Speaker 4: we did not hear enough from the conservation community about

880
00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:25,000
Speaker 4: getting a farm bill done.

881
00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:25,920
Speaker 3: And I took that.

882
00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:28,239
Speaker 4: There's a gut punch personally because I work on this

883
00:51:28,320 --> 00:51:32,320
Speaker 4: every day. But the reality is most hunters and anglers

884
00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:35,320
Speaker 4: don't pay too much attention to this, and and and

885
00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:38,759
Speaker 4: and don't know much about it. There are some diehards

886
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:42,719
Speaker 4: who are absolutely out doing the lord's work on this,

887
00:51:43,600 --> 00:51:46,319
Speaker 4: but if you look at the average hunter, they're not

888
00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:47,360
Speaker 4: particularly engaged.

889
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:47,839
Speaker 3: And I get it.

890
00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:50,839
Speaker 4: It can be intimidating to try to you know, if

891
00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:53,000
Speaker 4: you had asked me several years ago, before I started

892
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:54,560
Speaker 4: in this line of work, if I wanted to call

893
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:57,359
Speaker 4: my senator's office and tell them to, you know, get

894
00:51:57,360 --> 00:51:59,080
Speaker 4: off their button get something done, I.

895
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:00,480
Speaker 3: Would have really hesitated.

896
00:52:02,280 --> 00:52:07,319
Speaker 4: But there's very little that US professionals who are you know,

897
00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:09,960
Speaker 4: calling these offices and working with these offices on a

898
00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:13,600
Speaker 4: regular basis can do that has the same impact as

899
00:52:13,600 --> 00:52:17,000
Speaker 4: a constituent calling and saying, listen, this is important to me.

900
00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:19,839
Speaker 4: I don't necessarily know every single detail, you know, I'm

901
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:22,239
Speaker 4: not going to read the bill and and look for

902
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:25,520
Speaker 4: through every minute change, every period that gets switched to

903
00:52:25,560 --> 00:52:28,400
Speaker 4: a comma or whatever it is. But this is important

904
00:52:28,400 --> 00:52:30,680
Speaker 4: to me. Wildlife habitat is important for me, and we

905
00:52:30,719 --> 00:52:33,480
Speaker 4: need a farm bill done that that benefits it.

906
00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:35,200
Speaker 3: And so.

907
00:52:36,719 --> 00:52:39,520
Speaker 4: The biggest thing that I that I hope folks can

908
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:42,080
Speaker 4: do is, you know, take the take the time, take

909
00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:47,200
Speaker 4: the effort to get informed on conservation programs, on private

910
00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:52,520
Speaker 4: land conservation, learn about some of these key programs that

911
00:52:52,560 --> 00:52:55,759
Speaker 4: we talked about today. And then once you're you know,

912
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:59,480
Speaker 4: once you're to that level, take a step and get engaged.

913
00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:03,160
Speaker 4: And we try to make that pretty easy at TRCP

914
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:06,000
Speaker 4: dot org. We tend to run action alerts that are

915
00:53:06,640 --> 00:53:09,799
Speaker 4: already you know, prepopulated, and all you've got to do

916
00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:11,960
Speaker 4: is enter your information and say that you agree with

917
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:13,160
Speaker 4: it and hit send.

918
00:53:14,239 --> 00:53:15,040
Speaker 3: And those are great.

919
00:53:15,239 --> 00:53:17,200
Speaker 4: I would love it if everybody who listened to this

920
00:53:17,239 --> 00:53:20,839
Speaker 4: went and signed on our VPA Improvement Act one right now,

921
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:25,160
Speaker 4: that'd be fantastic. But as you gain some comfort, as

922
00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:29,320
Speaker 4: you gain some some literacy on these programs, just taking

923
00:53:29,320 --> 00:53:32,319
Speaker 4: that extra step to you know, if your if your

924
00:53:32,360 --> 00:53:35,120
Speaker 4: congress person is in town and holding a town hall,

925
00:53:35,520 --> 00:53:37,120
Speaker 4: you know, you don't have to go in and say, hey,

926
00:53:37,480 --> 00:53:39,880
Speaker 4: we need X dollars for equip and I need you

927
00:53:39,920 --> 00:53:42,399
Speaker 4: to make sure that it's this ten percent.

928
00:53:42,200 --> 00:53:42,839
Speaker 3: Is for this.

929
00:53:43,719 --> 00:53:45,279
Speaker 4: All you have to do is say, hey, I hunt

930
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:48,719
Speaker 4: eye fish, I care about farm build conservation.

931
00:53:48,840 --> 00:53:51,360
Speaker 3: Let's get this done perfect.

932
00:53:52,360 --> 00:53:55,120
Speaker 2: It's not as scary as some people think it is.

933
00:53:55,360 --> 00:53:58,200
Speaker 2: Like you said, it doesn't require a whole lot more

934
00:53:58,239 --> 00:54:00,959
Speaker 2: than a couple of minutes to make a phone call

935
00:54:01,160 --> 00:54:04,239
Speaker 2: or send one of those action aleart emails. And to

936
00:54:04,280 --> 00:54:07,640
Speaker 2: your point, every single one of those does help. It

937
00:54:07,680 --> 00:54:11,239
Speaker 2: does add up. And yeah, we got to make sure

938
00:54:11,239 --> 00:54:14,839
Speaker 2: that our voice is heard absolutely. Is there is there

939
00:54:15,960 --> 00:54:18,880
Speaker 2: anything that you have learned over the years eron or

940
00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:21,600
Speaker 2: heard you know, as you've been on you know, been

941
00:54:21,680 --> 00:54:24,920
Speaker 2: to DC, talking to folks in office when it comes

942
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:29,359
Speaker 2: to the most effective means of doing that, Is there

943
00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:32,160
Speaker 2: any is there anything that we can do to make

944
00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:34,960
Speaker 2: our emails a little bit more effective or our voicemail

945
00:54:35,000 --> 00:54:39,640
Speaker 2: messages a little bit more poignant, or or the timing

946
00:54:39,719 --> 00:54:42,040
Speaker 2: of when we do this. Sure, I'm just looking for,

947
00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:45,040
Speaker 2: like any little tweaks or tactics or ways that we

948
00:54:45,120 --> 00:54:48,680
Speaker 2: can go from doing the baseline to like the best

949
00:54:48,719 --> 00:54:50,359
Speaker 2: we could do. Is there anything that comes to mind?

950
00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:54,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great question, and I'll defer back to

951
00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:58,000
Speaker 4: something a state legislator in North Dakota told me, and

952
00:54:58,080 --> 00:55:01,160
Speaker 4: he said, half half of people want to hear the

953
00:55:01,239 --> 00:55:04,320
Speaker 4: story and half of people want to see the numbers.

954
00:55:04,880 --> 00:55:08,080
Speaker 4: And so if you have both, that's the best. But

955
00:55:08,160 --> 00:55:09,719
Speaker 4: if you only have one or the other, make sure

956
00:55:09,719 --> 00:55:12,160
Speaker 4: you use it. And so some of the most effective

957
00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:16,440
Speaker 4: things that I have seen, specifically from hunters or anglers

958
00:55:16,520 --> 00:55:19,520
Speaker 4: is hey, if you send a polaroid of you and

959
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:23,839
Speaker 4: your kid hunting on a walk in access and say, hey,

960
00:55:23,880 --> 00:55:27,239
Speaker 4: I care about VPA hip and this is why this

961
00:55:27,280 --> 00:55:29,719
Speaker 4: is where you know my son or daughter got there

962
00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:35,480
Speaker 4: first brewster, or you know, hey, I really appreciate your

963
00:55:35,480 --> 00:55:38,920
Speaker 4: support for the conservation title. The river that I fish

964
00:55:39,480 --> 00:55:43,040
Speaker 4: is cleaner because of that. Here's a picture you know,

965
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:46,040
Speaker 4: we're out, we're out fishing, or even a story of

966
00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:49,000
Speaker 4: how that happened. That's that's incredibly important, and the numbers

967
00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:51,040
Speaker 4: are a little trickier for the general public to do.

968
00:55:51,120 --> 00:55:54,480
Speaker 4: We try to do our best to provide that information.

969
00:55:54,640 --> 00:55:57,680
Speaker 4: Just as an example, voluntary public Access and Habitat and

970
00:55:57,680 --> 00:56:01,600
Speaker 4: Center program. For every dollar that Congress and in that program,

971
00:56:01,840 --> 00:56:05,200
Speaker 4: it generates about eight dollars of spending in rural communities. Well,

972
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:08,040
Speaker 4: so you create access, hunters and anglers show up, we

973
00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:12,600
Speaker 4: spend money, We benefit those rural economies. And so the

974
00:56:12,640 --> 00:56:14,640
Speaker 4: combination of those two. If I, if I've got that

975
00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:17,040
Speaker 4: polaroid of a kid with their first rooster, and I've

976
00:56:17,040 --> 00:56:20,160
Speaker 4: got an eight to one ROI for the program, I

977
00:56:20,200 --> 00:56:22,400
Speaker 4: can make a pretty compelling argument, and so can so

978
00:56:22,520 --> 00:56:23,200
Speaker 4: can anybody.

979
00:56:23,719 --> 00:56:25,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's a hard one to argue with when

980
00:56:25,680 --> 00:56:29,840
Speaker 2: you have both of those arrows in your quiver. Yep, Okay.

981
00:56:29,960 --> 00:56:34,040
Speaker 2: I want to really quickly shift briefly to the other

982
00:56:34,160 --> 00:56:39,040
Speaker 2: side of the farm bill conversation, which is, if I'm

983
00:56:39,080 --> 00:56:41,920
Speaker 2: listening to this and I'm saying yes, yes, yes, I

984
00:56:41,960 --> 00:56:44,360
Speaker 2: want this stuff to move forward. I'd like these things

985
00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:47,520
Speaker 2: to happen, and a lot of it's because I own

986
00:56:47,600 --> 00:56:49,640
Speaker 2: land and I want to actually get involved in some

987
00:56:49,680 --> 00:56:51,759
Speaker 2: of these programs. I have some friends who are in

988
00:56:51,800 --> 00:56:55,200
Speaker 2: that boat who have been able to participate in EQUIP

989
00:56:55,320 --> 00:56:59,560
Speaker 2: or CRP contracts and have better wildlife habitat on their

990
00:56:59,640 --> 00:57:03,080
Speaker 2: land because of it. And it's become more economical for

991
00:57:03,120 --> 00:57:05,480
Speaker 2: them to do it because of these cost share programs

992
00:57:05,560 --> 00:57:09,879
Speaker 2: or payments. But I do think some people are intimidated

993
00:57:09,920 --> 00:57:12,960
Speaker 2: by getting involved with the government. You know, there's there's

994
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:15,759
Speaker 2: some concerns people have about getting in bed with the

995
00:57:15,800 --> 00:57:19,040
Speaker 2: federal government all that kind of stuff. So can you

996
00:57:19,120 --> 00:57:23,880
Speaker 2: give us a crash course, a quick rundown of, Hey,

997
00:57:23,880 --> 00:57:26,160
Speaker 2: if I want to go down this path, how do

998
00:57:26,240 --> 00:57:30,560
Speaker 2: I do it? What's involved? What kind of best practices

999
00:57:30,600 --> 00:57:33,160
Speaker 2: should I be aware of if I want to get

1000
00:57:33,200 --> 00:57:37,200
Speaker 2: into the CRP program or participate with any equipped project

1001
00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:38,160
Speaker 2: or something like that.

1002
00:57:38,520 --> 00:57:42,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, that's a that's a good one. The first

1003
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:45,040
Speaker 4: thing I would say is to the folks who are

1004
00:57:45,080 --> 00:57:49,520
Speaker 4: hesitant to work with a federal agency, I get that myself.

1005
00:57:50,320 --> 00:57:51,720
Speaker 4: If I was going to pick one to work with,

1006
00:57:51,800 --> 00:57:55,400
Speaker 4: it would absolutely be USDA. And I'd say that for

1007
00:57:55,440 --> 00:57:59,960
Speaker 4: a couple of reasons. Number One, USDA's data privacy regular

1008
00:58:00,000 --> 00:58:04,000
Speaker 4: relations are about as stiff as probably the CIA or

1009
00:58:04,040 --> 00:58:07,640
Speaker 4: the irs, which can be pretty frustrating when you're a

1010
00:58:07,640 --> 00:58:10,440
Speaker 4: person like me who's trying to get information about what

1011
00:58:10,480 --> 00:58:15,360
Speaker 4: these programs are doing and where. But it's incredible the

1012
00:58:15,440 --> 00:58:20,640
Speaker 4: level of security that that agency has. The other thing

1013
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:22,360
Speaker 4: I'll say on that is, if you don't want to

1014
00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:26,320
Speaker 4: dive in straight with the federal agency themselves, look at

1015
00:58:26,320 --> 00:58:29,200
Speaker 4: some of the partner organizations that are enrolling. One would

1016
00:58:29,200 --> 00:58:32,640
Speaker 4: be your conservation districts. That's a local unit of government,

1017
00:58:32,800 --> 00:58:35,640
Speaker 4: usually at the county level. You can talk to somebody

1018
00:58:35,640 --> 00:58:39,040
Speaker 4: who lives in your community who does this work, has

1019
00:58:39,080 --> 00:58:42,080
Speaker 4: worked with your neighbors. I think that's almost always true

1020
00:58:42,080 --> 00:58:44,200
Speaker 4: of the federal staff as well. But if that's not

1021
00:58:44,240 --> 00:58:46,040
Speaker 4: the step you want to take, but talk to your

1022
00:58:46,040 --> 00:58:48,920
Speaker 4: conservation district. They might be in the same building, so

1023
00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:50,920
Speaker 4: you still might have to walk into a federal building,

1024
00:58:52,160 --> 00:58:55,080
Speaker 4: but you'd be dealing with a local person. The same

1025
00:58:55,200 --> 00:58:59,160
Speaker 4: is true for conservation nonprofits, and there's a whole host

1026
00:58:59,200 --> 00:59:01,480
Speaker 4: of them who partner with USTA to do this work.

1027
00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:04,680
Speaker 4: And I always hesitate to name partners because we have

1028
00:59:04,760 --> 00:59:06,840
Speaker 4: so many of them who do this work. But Pheasants

1029
00:59:06,880 --> 00:59:07,800
Speaker 4: forever pops.

1030
00:59:07,520 --> 00:59:08,439
Speaker 3: Into my head right away.

1031
00:59:08,440 --> 00:59:11,160
Speaker 4: They've got a couple hundred farm built biologists who work

1032
00:59:11,240 --> 00:59:14,680
Speaker 4: directly with landowners, and then you've got that intermediarya where

1033
00:59:14,720 --> 00:59:18,320
Speaker 4: you're working with a Pheasants Forever staff person as opposed

1034
00:59:18,360 --> 00:59:20,320
Speaker 4: to know the agency themselves.

1035
00:59:21,440 --> 00:59:23,640
Speaker 2: But that really is Yeah, go ahead, I'm gonna introject

1036
00:59:23,680 --> 00:59:27,160
Speaker 2: really quickly. What does that actually look like. I've never

1037
00:59:27,280 --> 00:59:29,840
Speaker 2: worked with a Pheasant Forever farm biologists, but I've heard

1038
00:59:29,840 --> 00:59:31,920
Speaker 2: a lot of people mention, all they have these farm biologists,

1039
00:59:31,920 --> 00:59:34,280
Speaker 2: they have these farmer guys that do this well. They

1040
00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:37,680
Speaker 2: actually handhold you and help you through the process and

1041
00:59:38,360 --> 00:59:41,600
Speaker 2: be the person that deals with USDA rather than you

1042
00:59:41,680 --> 00:59:43,800
Speaker 2: have And too, how does that work? Do I have

1043
00:59:43,840 --> 00:59:46,640
Speaker 2: to pay them? What goes into that?

1044
00:59:47,000 --> 00:59:47,320
Speaker 3: Yeah?

1045
00:59:47,440 --> 00:59:50,360
Speaker 4: No, I imagine you could find a private contractor and

1046
00:59:50,440 --> 00:59:52,040
Speaker 4: pay them to do that. But no, you would not

1047
00:59:52,120 --> 00:59:54,439
Speaker 4: be right in the check to Pheasants Forever to get

1048
00:59:54,440 --> 00:59:57,040
Speaker 4: that level of assistance. If I can give you a

1049
00:59:57,040 --> 00:59:58,760
Speaker 4: bit of an anecdote, if you don't mind me going

1050
00:59:58,800 --> 01:00:00,880
Speaker 4: on a head for a minute.

1051
01:00:01,000 --> 01:00:02,320
Speaker 3: We get hung up on the.

1052
01:00:02,320 --> 01:00:04,000
Speaker 4: Cost share side of things. We get hung up on

1053
01:00:04,000 --> 01:00:06,320
Speaker 4: the financial assistance. And that's for good reason. We already

1054
01:00:06,360 --> 01:00:09,120
Speaker 4: talked about it. It costs money to do this work.

1055
01:00:10,320 --> 01:00:12,520
Speaker 4: But again, one of the barriers is where there's a

1056
01:00:12,560 --> 01:00:15,720
Speaker 4: lot of demand for those same dollars. So we need

1057
01:00:15,720 --> 01:00:20,080
Speaker 4: to from a landowner benefit perspective, we need to think

1058
01:00:20,120 --> 01:00:25,600
Speaker 4: about the technical assistance side a little bit. So here's

1059
01:00:25,640 --> 01:00:28,600
Speaker 4: what technical assistance is really. So this is this is

1060
01:00:28,600 --> 01:00:31,080
Speaker 4: a personal example. I'm going to reveal a deep, dark

1061
01:00:31,120 --> 01:00:34,520
Speaker 4: secret of the ceiling behind me. I got a walk

1062
01:00:34,520 --> 01:00:38,480
Speaker 4: out basement in my house. As you walk in the door,

1063
01:00:38,520 --> 01:00:40,360
Speaker 4: the very first thing you're going to see after you

1064
01:00:40,360 --> 01:00:42,520
Speaker 4: get past the dogs is a big hole in the

1065
01:00:42,600 --> 01:00:46,040
Speaker 4: drywall and the ceiling two foot by four foot, jagged,

1066
01:00:46,280 --> 01:00:50,680
Speaker 4: ugly hole. What happened was the shower above that leaked.

1067
01:00:51,160 --> 01:00:52,520
Speaker 4: By the time I got to it, I had a

1068
01:00:52,520 --> 01:00:57,760
Speaker 4: mold issue. I cut that drywall out. I'm ashamed to say.

1069
01:00:57,760 --> 01:01:01,000
Speaker 4: It's probably been there about as long as since we

1070
01:01:01,120 --> 01:01:02,080
Speaker 4: last talked Mark, so.

1071
01:01:02,000 --> 01:01:04,920
Speaker 3: It's probably been there a couple of years. So it's

1072
01:01:04,960 --> 01:01:05,680
Speaker 3: in my basement.

1073
01:01:06,160 --> 01:01:06,640
Speaker 4: I see it.

1074
01:01:06,760 --> 01:01:08,880
Speaker 3: I see it multiple times a day. But you know,

1075
01:01:09,520 --> 01:01:10,440
Speaker 3: the average.

1076
01:01:10,040 --> 01:01:11,720
Speaker 4: Person who comes to the house isn't going to see it.

1077
01:01:11,720 --> 01:01:14,880
Speaker 4: They're not going to walk down there. So technical assistance,

1078
01:01:14,960 --> 01:01:17,479
Speaker 4: I remember, that's the whole point of the story. I'd

1079
01:01:17,480 --> 01:01:19,600
Speaker 4: make a phone call. I'd call that Pheasants Forever Farm

1080
01:01:19,600 --> 01:01:22,720
Speaker 4: build biologist, or I'd call in our CS and I'd say, hey,

1081
01:01:22,760 --> 01:01:24,800
Speaker 4: I got a I got a hole in my drywall.

1082
01:01:25,640 --> 01:01:27,240
Speaker 4: And they'd say, you know what I've been I've been

1083
01:01:27,280 --> 01:01:30,240
Speaker 4: doing drywall for fifteen years. I've worked with ten of

1084
01:01:30,240 --> 01:01:32,520
Speaker 4: your neighbors on a very similar problem.

1085
01:01:32,840 --> 01:01:34,320
Speaker 3: You want me to come out and take a look.

1086
01:01:35,520 --> 01:01:39,200
Speaker 4: No cost, Okay, So they come out, they check out

1087
01:01:39,200 --> 01:01:42,200
Speaker 4: that hole, spend a little time looking at some of

1088
01:01:42,200 --> 01:01:45,520
Speaker 4: my other unfinished progate projects around the place. What are

1089
01:01:45,520 --> 01:01:49,680
Speaker 4: my goals? You know what am I actually trying to accomplish.

1090
01:01:49,800 --> 01:01:52,800
Speaker 4: They'd give me some examples of folks who tried some

1091
01:01:52,920 --> 01:01:55,840
Speaker 4: of the things, some of my hair braiding schemes, and

1092
01:01:55,920 --> 01:01:57,480
Speaker 4: tell me why that was a good idea or a

1093
01:01:57,480 --> 01:02:01,400
Speaker 4: bad idea. We'd sit down together, we'd write up a plan.

1094
01:02:01,800 --> 01:02:04,080
Speaker 4: It would have several options that would fix that hole.

1095
01:02:04,160 --> 01:02:07,480
Speaker 4: It would include my budget. They'd probably tell me how

1096
01:02:07,480 --> 01:02:10,440
Speaker 4: to keep my other shower drains from drainings from lencoln

1097
01:02:10,560 --> 01:02:14,280
Speaker 4: so I wouldn't have to do this again. And then

1098
01:02:14,320 --> 01:02:16,800
Speaker 4: they might, you know, they might tell me why, how

1099
01:02:16,840 --> 01:02:19,280
Speaker 4: to keep my closet door handles from unscrewing every time

1100
01:02:19,280 --> 01:02:24,240
Speaker 4: I open them. More than likely, just based on that

1101
01:02:24,360 --> 01:02:29,240
Speaker 4: technical assistance, I'd have that hole patched real quick, right,

1102
01:02:29,800 --> 01:02:31,960
Speaker 4: I'd be a lot better situated to avoid it in

1103
01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:34,280
Speaker 4: the future. Now, if we took that the step further

1104
01:02:34,400 --> 01:02:37,640
Speaker 4: and I applied for something but whatever, the hole in

1105
01:02:37,680 --> 01:02:42,439
Speaker 4: the ceiling reduction program, whatever that would be, and they said, okay, well,

1106
01:02:42,440 --> 01:02:44,720
Speaker 4: also we're going to pay fifty percent of the cost

1107
01:02:44,760 --> 01:02:46,880
Speaker 4: to fix that hole, I'm probably going to get it,

1108
01:02:47,040 --> 01:02:50,880
Speaker 4: get it done even faster. But I mean, honestly, that

1109
01:02:50,960 --> 01:02:53,160
Speaker 4: hole in my ceiling only hurts me. So we're never

1110
01:02:53,200 --> 01:02:56,080
Speaker 4: going to create a federal program to fix that hole.

1111
01:02:57,080 --> 01:02:59,720
Speaker 4: If we were talking about soil erosion or wildlife habitat,

1112
01:03:00,320 --> 01:03:02,439
Speaker 4: that's when we might start thinking about that cost share.

1113
01:03:02,520 --> 01:03:05,880
Speaker 4: But anyway, that's a lot about that conservation planning process.

1114
01:03:05,920 --> 01:03:09,360
Speaker 4: Looks like you've got an expert who has done this before,

1115
01:03:09,440 --> 01:03:12,160
Speaker 4: who is doing it in your area, with your neighbors

1116
01:03:13,640 --> 01:03:16,680
Speaker 4: helping you work through that process. And if you want

1117
01:03:16,680 --> 01:03:19,560
Speaker 4: to take the next step and apply for a federal

1118
01:03:19,600 --> 01:03:22,800
Speaker 4: program to help you pay for it, great. If you

1119
01:03:22,880 --> 01:03:24,520
Speaker 4: just want to have another set of eyes on your

1120
01:03:24,520 --> 01:03:28,040
Speaker 4: property giving you some good advice about what made what

1121
01:03:28,080 --> 01:03:29,080
Speaker 4: you could possibly do.

1122
01:03:29,960 --> 01:03:32,200
Speaker 3: You can do that without ever signing a sheet of paper.

1123
01:03:33,160 --> 01:03:39,000
Speaker 2: And so the way to get this process started is

1124
01:03:39,080 --> 01:03:42,240
Speaker 2: to either look and see if you have a Pheasants

1125
01:03:42,320 --> 01:03:45,280
Speaker 2: Forever Farm Bill biologist in your area, and or to

1126
01:03:45,400 --> 01:03:49,000
Speaker 2: just call your local NRCS office. Is that right?

1127
01:03:49,200 --> 01:03:52,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, yep, you'd have a USDA service center most likely

1128
01:03:52,200 --> 01:03:55,720
Speaker 4: within the county you live in. You can you can

1129
01:03:55,880 --> 01:03:58,320
Speaker 4: just call the first number you see for that office

1130
01:03:58,320 --> 01:04:00,800
Speaker 4: and you'll talk to a person who's able to connect

1131
01:04:00,840 --> 01:04:03,480
Speaker 4: you to the right spot. Again if you if you

1132
01:04:03,520 --> 01:04:05,919
Speaker 4: prefer to work with one of the various nonprofits. Again,

1133
01:04:05,960 --> 01:04:09,840
Speaker 4: there's there's dozens of them who have similar agreements like this.

1134
01:04:10,000 --> 01:04:14,400
Speaker 4: But pick your conservation organization of choice and see if

1135
01:04:14,400 --> 01:04:17,360
Speaker 4: they've got somebody who's working on a partnership with USDDA.

1136
01:04:18,120 --> 01:04:20,720
Speaker 2: And there's there's a whole lot of ways that this

1137
01:04:20,800 --> 01:04:24,280
Speaker 2: can manifest itself on the ground, right, I mean, I

1138
01:04:24,320 --> 01:04:28,360
Speaker 2: know there are dozens of different habitat improvement ideas out

1139
01:04:28,400 --> 01:04:31,280
Speaker 2: there that are being discussed within the hunting world and

1140
01:04:31,400 --> 01:04:35,680
Speaker 2: various you know, there's ways to improve pollinator habitat, and

1141
01:04:35,720 --> 01:04:39,360
Speaker 2: there's native grasslands, and there's forest management, and there's early

1142
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:41,880
Speaker 2: successional habitat, and there's people who want to put in

1143
01:04:42,240 --> 01:04:45,320
Speaker 2: water holes or put in prairie strips, or they want

1144
01:04:45,360 --> 01:04:48,040
Speaker 2: to put in tree plantings to improve There's all these

1145
01:04:48,080 --> 01:04:50,320
Speaker 2: different things that you could do to make your habitat

1146
01:04:50,360 --> 01:04:52,840
Speaker 2: better on your land, and I think a lot of

1147
01:04:52,880 --> 01:04:56,040
Speaker 2: people probably don't realize that a lot of those projects

1148
01:04:56,360 --> 01:05:00,520
Speaker 2: would fall within the scope of something like equip where

1149
01:05:00,520 --> 01:05:03,000
Speaker 2: there might be this technical assistance that could be provided

1150
01:05:03,000 --> 01:05:06,760
Speaker 2: to you, or coast share provided to you, or maybe

1151
01:05:06,800 --> 01:05:08,600
Speaker 2: what you want to do would fall into one of

1152
01:05:08,600 --> 01:05:11,920
Speaker 2: the CRP programs where you could be paid to have

1153
01:05:12,040 --> 01:05:16,760
Speaker 2: that habitat out there. Right, So, it seems like almost

1154
01:05:17,680 --> 01:05:20,000
Speaker 2: almost with anything you might want to do to make

1155
01:05:20,000 --> 01:05:22,320
Speaker 2: your deer hunting or pheasant hunting or turkey hunting better,

1156
01:05:22,680 --> 01:05:26,200
Speaker 2: they're very likely at least cause enough to call your

1157
01:05:26,240 --> 01:05:28,320
Speaker 2: local office and say, Hey, here's the kind of thing

1158
01:05:28,360 --> 01:05:31,840
Speaker 2: we're trying to do, here's my goals. Can you help. Absolutely,

1159
01:05:32,200 --> 01:05:34,240
Speaker 2: since it's free to at least get that help and

1160
01:05:34,320 --> 01:05:37,800
Speaker 2: have that conversation, it seems it seems really hard to

1161
01:05:37,920 --> 01:05:39,040
Speaker 2: argue at least trying them.

1162
01:05:39,400 --> 01:05:42,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, you know, you want to do prescribe fire,

1163
01:05:42,600 --> 01:05:44,920
Speaker 4: there's a practice standard for prescribe fire. You want to

1164
01:05:44,920 --> 01:05:46,240
Speaker 4: put in a fuel break so that.

1165
01:05:46,160 --> 01:05:47,440
Speaker 3: You can burn.

1166
01:05:47,000 --> 01:05:51,360
Speaker 4: There's all sorts of you know, these all have numbers,

1167
01:05:51,360 --> 01:05:54,400
Speaker 4: and they all have very specific names because they're within

1168
01:05:54,440 --> 01:05:57,880
Speaker 4: a federal system. But you don't have to know, you know,

1169
01:05:58,160 --> 01:06:00,720
Speaker 4: oh this this fits as this six or four to

1170
01:06:00,720 --> 01:06:03,600
Speaker 4: three restoration of rare declining natural communities. You know, you

1171
01:06:03,640 --> 01:06:05,320
Speaker 4: don't have to know that. You just have to say,

1172
01:06:05,560 --> 01:06:07,960
Speaker 4: you know, I'm trying to improve habitat I've got a

1173
01:06:08,440 --> 01:06:10,880
Speaker 4: eighty acre piece of woods, or I've got a ten

1174
01:06:10,920 --> 01:06:14,160
Speaker 4: acre piece that used to be farmed, or you know,

1175
01:06:14,240 --> 01:06:15,000
Speaker 4: whatever it is.

1176
01:06:15,920 --> 01:06:17,760
Speaker 3: Taking that step is a big one.

1177
01:06:17,800 --> 01:06:21,040
Speaker 4: And so I mentioned there's tremendous demand for the financial

1178
01:06:21,080 --> 01:06:26,920
Speaker 4: side of these programs. That's absolutely true. But oftentimes if

1179
01:06:27,000 --> 01:06:30,800
Speaker 4: there's a state program, or there's a you know, philanthropic

1180
01:06:30,920 --> 01:06:37,320
Speaker 4: organization that's putting money towards these things, or or or

1181
01:06:37,560 --> 01:06:40,120
Speaker 4: or nonprofit organization that has funding to do this kind

1182
01:06:40,120 --> 01:06:43,000
Speaker 4: of work, the folks at that USDA service center are

1183
01:06:43,000 --> 01:06:45,560
Speaker 4: going to know about that program. So they might say, yeah,

1184
01:06:45,640 --> 01:06:49,160
Speaker 4: we could do it through equip that's what this process

1185
01:06:49,200 --> 01:06:52,320
Speaker 4: looks like. But you know, State of Minnesota has a

1186
01:06:52,480 --> 01:06:55,680
Speaker 4: similar program. You might be better off talking to them first.

1187
01:06:56,320 --> 01:07:00,480
Speaker 4: It's just a really good repository for both the technical

1188
01:07:00,560 --> 01:07:04,160
Speaker 4: knowledge and the technical assistance and conservation planning. But also

1189
01:07:04,320 --> 01:07:06,120
Speaker 4: you know where else might I be able to find

1190
01:07:06,600 --> 01:07:07,680
Speaker 4: financial assistance?

1191
01:07:08,160 --> 01:07:13,360
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, I I feel ashamed to say that. You know,

1192
01:07:13,480 --> 01:07:17,640
Speaker 2: I've not called the nrc office up up north where

1193
01:07:17,640 --> 01:07:21,160
Speaker 2: we have a family, uh property that we probably should

1194
01:07:21,200 --> 01:07:23,080
Speaker 2: have touched base with, to see if there's something we've

1195
01:07:23,080 --> 01:07:24,960
Speaker 2: We've talked to foresters and stuff up there, but I

1196
01:07:25,000 --> 01:07:28,160
Speaker 2: actually haven't called n RCS to see if there's some

1197
01:07:28,240 --> 01:07:29,880
Speaker 2: kind of state or federal program that we could have

1198
01:07:29,880 --> 01:07:33,320
Speaker 2: gotten involved in. So I've got my uh my marching

1199
01:07:33,400 --> 01:07:34,840
Speaker 2: orders now too with this reminder.

1200
01:07:35,120 --> 01:07:36,400
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's great.

1201
01:07:36,640 --> 01:07:40,760
Speaker 2: So with that all said, Aaron, wrapping things up here,

1202
01:07:40,840 --> 01:07:44,960
Speaker 2: you mentioned that TRCP has some materials and resources on

1203
01:07:44,960 --> 01:07:49,360
Speaker 2: your website. Is there any other specific action items you

1204
01:07:49,400 --> 01:07:52,280
Speaker 2: want to give to folks today other than going to

1205
01:07:52,760 --> 01:07:55,960
Speaker 2: t RCP dot org and and maybe following through on

1206
01:07:56,000 --> 01:07:58,240
Speaker 2: some of those action itms you called to called attention

1207
01:07:58,280 --> 01:08:00,680
Speaker 2: to could you could you give us the final one

1208
01:08:00,720 --> 01:08:02,960
Speaker 2: two three that you want us to move forward on.

1209
01:08:03,600 --> 01:08:06,080
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so we I mean we talked a little

1210
01:08:06,080 --> 01:08:07,360
Speaker 4: bit about making sure you're informed.

1211
01:08:07,360 --> 01:08:08,800
Speaker 3: And I'll broaden this out.

1212
01:08:10,240 --> 01:08:13,040
Speaker 4: You might have listened to this as a casual you've

1213
01:08:13,080 --> 01:08:15,800
Speaker 4: got a casual interest in egg or or a private

1214
01:08:15,880 --> 01:08:18,160
Speaker 4: lands conservation, but you're really at heart you're a public

1215
01:08:18,240 --> 01:08:21,360
Speaker 4: lands person or you know you're listening to this. You

1216
01:08:21,520 --> 01:08:23,240
Speaker 4: like to hunt deer, but I'm I'm a I'm a

1217
01:08:23,280 --> 01:08:28,040
Speaker 4: trout fisherman and I fish in Colorado. We work on

1218
01:08:28,120 --> 01:08:30,280
Speaker 4: all those issues. My my chunk of that is what

1219
01:08:30,320 --> 01:08:33,519
Speaker 4: we talked about today. But we work on all those issues.

1220
01:08:33,560 --> 01:08:35,400
Speaker 4: So if if you if you're willing to take the

1221
01:08:35,439 --> 01:08:37,280
Speaker 4: time to visit the website, I think you'll find something

1222
01:08:37,320 --> 01:08:40,400
Speaker 4: that speaks to you as an individual, and I hope

1223
01:08:40,439 --> 01:08:44,839
Speaker 4: you'll you'll get involved there. But just you know, zooming

1224
01:08:44,880 --> 01:08:50,599
Speaker 4: out a little bit. Uh, hunters and anglers, especially if

1225
01:08:50,600 --> 01:08:52,760
Speaker 4: you take those two groups together, as you know so

1226
01:08:52,880 --> 01:08:56,720
Speaker 4: many of us are overlap. Of course, that's a that's

1227
01:08:56,760 --> 01:08:59,840
Speaker 4: a big group of people in this country, and the

1228
01:09:00,800 --> 01:09:04,439
Speaker 4: traditionally and historically has not been a better set of

1229
01:09:04,479 --> 01:09:08,839
Speaker 4: advocates for getting good conservation work done in this country

1230
01:09:09,000 --> 01:09:13,000
Speaker 4: than hunters and anglers. And if we allow that voice

1231
01:09:13,400 --> 01:09:16,920
Speaker 4: to become quiet, if we allow that voice to you know,

1232
01:09:17,280 --> 01:09:22,560
Speaker 4: sit back and watch, we're not going to get the outcomes.

1233
01:09:22,040 --> 01:09:22,920
Speaker 3: That we want to see.

1234
01:09:23,320 --> 01:09:26,160
Speaker 4: And so I hope folks, uh, we'll just take that,

1235
01:09:26,600 --> 01:09:29,160
Speaker 4: take that initiative to you know, just take that next

1236
01:09:29,160 --> 01:09:30,360
Speaker 4: step and find.

1237
01:09:30,200 --> 01:09:32,240
Speaker 3: A way to get involved. And that might mean, you.

1238
01:09:32,160 --> 01:09:34,640
Speaker 4: Know, spending time on our website and signing up for

1239
01:09:34,680 --> 01:09:38,800
Speaker 4: action alerts and calling your congress person. Or it might

1240
01:09:38,880 --> 01:09:41,760
Speaker 4: mean becoming a member of one of our partner organizations

1241
01:09:41,960 --> 01:09:44,200
Speaker 4: and you know, going out and doing that habitat work

1242
01:09:44,200 --> 01:09:47,439
Speaker 4: on the ground yourself, or fundraising U there's a there's

1243
01:09:47,439 --> 01:09:50,599
Speaker 4: a whole different, whole lot of different ways that folks

1244
01:09:50,640 --> 01:09:51,120
Speaker 4: can do that.

1245
01:09:51,600 --> 01:09:53,960
Speaker 3: I just hope that folks are willing to take one.

1246
01:09:53,840 --> 01:09:57,840
Speaker 2: Of those steps right there with you, Aaron, I I

1247
01:09:57,880 --> 01:10:00,080
Speaker 2: will do my best to do my part and on

1248
01:10:00,320 --> 01:10:03,040
Speaker 2: everyone listening to join you and me and doing that.

1249
01:10:03,280 --> 01:10:06,599
Speaker 4: So I really appreciate you, you know, being a voice

1250
01:10:06,600 --> 01:10:10,040
Speaker 4: for conservation, Mark and you know, drawing attention to these issues.

1251
01:10:11,360 --> 01:10:13,639
Speaker 2: My pleasure. At the least I can do, given how

1252
01:10:14,080 --> 01:10:19,200
Speaker 2: how incredibly much these open spaces, these working lands, these

1253
01:10:19,200 --> 01:10:22,639
Speaker 2: white tailed deer and pheasants and grouse and trout and

1254
01:10:22,800 --> 01:10:26,040
Speaker 2: bluegill and rabbits have given me and my family. At

1255
01:10:26,120 --> 01:10:30,000
Speaker 2: least I can do is try to keep him around, right, absolutely, well, Erin,

1256
01:10:30,240 --> 01:10:32,439
Speaker 2: I really appreciate you. Thanks for taking the time to

1257
01:10:32,479 --> 01:10:35,400
Speaker 2: do this. I hope that we don't have to have

1258
01:10:35,439 --> 01:10:37,720
Speaker 2: the same conversation two years from now. I hope we

1259
01:10:37,760 --> 01:10:40,080
Speaker 2: can touch base again and celebrate. How about that.

1260
01:10:40,400 --> 01:10:42,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll have to have me on when we get

1261
01:10:42,160 --> 01:10:43,760
Speaker 4: something passed, and we can tell you all the good

1262
01:10:43,760 --> 01:10:45,519
Speaker 4: things that are in there for hunters and anglers.

1263
01:10:46,000 --> 01:10:51,719
Speaker 2: That's a good plan to me, all right, And that's

1264
01:10:51,800 --> 01:10:55,160
Speaker 2: a wrap. Thanks for being here, Thank you for tuning in,

1265
01:10:55,360 --> 01:10:58,360
Speaker 2: Thanks for being a part of the solution, helping move

1266
01:10:58,400 --> 01:11:02,120
Speaker 2: this thing forward. Getting a far bill finally passed, it's

1267
01:11:02,160 --> 01:11:08,560
Speaker 2: gonna be good for deer, deer, hunters, pheasants, quale, songbirds, pollinators,

1268
01:11:08,640 --> 01:11:11,400
Speaker 2: open spaces, clean water, clean air. It's gonna do all

1269
01:11:11,400 --> 01:11:13,600
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff if we can make sure it

1270
01:11:13,640 --> 01:11:16,360
Speaker 2: gets over the finish line. So going over to TRCP

1271
01:11:16,479 --> 01:11:18,960
Speaker 2: dot org, follow the prompts to get to their farm

1272
01:11:18,960 --> 01:11:22,920
Speaker 2: bill page. You know, send that action email, keep on

1273
01:11:23,200 --> 01:11:26,000
Speaker 2: getting in touch with your lawmakers on this stuff. Let's

1274
01:11:26,040 --> 01:11:29,559
Speaker 2: get this sucker done until next time, Thank you, and

1275
01:11:29,760 --> 01:11:32,200
Speaker 2: stay wired to hunt