Re: NNG Linn Moedinger

J.B.Bane Wrote:
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> Interesting that this is just now happening in
> Penn. The USDA mostly through one of it's sub
> agencies I think called the ASCS combined with
> agencies concerned with fish habitat have been
> doing this sort of thing for probably 20 years
> here in N.E. Ore. with programs to fence streams
> to keep grazing stock out, plant native shrubs and
> trees along banks and even change steam courses so
> they meander as they once did. I assumed these
> programs were nationwide. Some of the ASCS
> programs have paid for extensive livestock
> watering systems extending out into hill country
> in order to promote grazing away from valley
> streams.

You're correct that similar programs have been in place nationwide for many years, going back at least to the old US Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS) in the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, and more recently the ASCS (Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service), which is now part of the Farm Service Agency. All of these programs have been administered by the USDA.

The program described in the article, however, is from the EPA, not the USDA, so to a certain extent it's evidence of duplication of efforts by multiple government agencies all doing the same thing (a familiar situation). The EPA's mandate is broader than the USDA's , since it's concerned with environmental quality issues in general and not just agriculture and agricultural land-use, but since the majority of pollution inputs to the Chesapeake Bay are agricultural in origin, the EPA ends up concerning itself with agriculture as if it were a second USDA. The Chesapeake Bay of course has always been the focus of special regulatory interest by the federal government, not just because its watershed is so densely populated and includes so many states, but because it's right in Washington's backyard.

-Philip Marshall