DATE POSTED	ITEM
8/9/10		For Immediate Release: Anthony Hauck (651) 209-4972 CRP General Sign-Up this August Good News for Habitat and Hunters CRP general sign-up will run Aug. 2-Aug. 27 Saint Paul, Minn. – July 26, 2010 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today that the new Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general sign-up will run Monday, August 2nd through Friday, August 27th. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever Farm Bill Biologists are prepared to work with landowners through the entire sign-up period. The new general CRP signup will be the first since 2006, and landowner demand is expected to be strong, especially considering the USDA has updated soil rental rates since that last general signup. "CRP continues to be a good option for producers to ensure income on the tough-to-farm and lowest producing acres," said Dave Nomsen, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever's Vice President of Government Affairs, "This general signup's 4 million-plus acre nationwide allotment is likely to fill up quickly, so it's critical that landowners get into their local USDA service centers immediately to examine CRP options on their land." Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have more than 60 Farm Bill Biologists working at USDA service centers to provide one-on-one assistance to farmers and ranchers during the 2010 general sign-up. The new CRP general sign-up arrives in time to address the 4.4 million acres of CRP expiring on September 30, 2010. It is also representative of USDA's ongoing action to maximize the wildlife habitat and environmental benefits created via the program's 25-year history. This February at Pheasants Forever's National Pheasant Fest, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced his pledge to keep CRP fully enrolled at the federally mandated (via the 2008 Farm Bill) maximum level of 32 million acres. With an additional 14.2 million acres of CRP slated to expire between 2011 and 2013, the new general sign-up is the critical first step, said Nomsen. Today's announcement also resonates with pheasant hunters, as CRP acres provide the top nationwide habitat component in producing pheasants. Just three years removed from record-setting pheasant harvests (Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota); hunters have been disappointed in the 6.5 million acres that left the Conservation Reserve Program without a general signup. America's quail populations continue their rapid decline because of habitat losses. "This new general signup is critical to prevent us from losing more acres and for preventing continued population decline of the birds many of us love to pursue each autumn," Nomsen added. Nomsen also points out how understated CRP is to the rural environment and the rural economy. "For 25 years, CRP has been the nation's single most important and successful conservation program, protecting water quality and soils, and creating habitat for a diverse mix of wildlife," he said, "It's a program critically important to the economy of rural America and our nation's outdoor traditions. CRP in the next 25 years will continue all of these benefits, while also producing the habitat critical to pollinators and the $19 billion dollars honey bee pollination means to America's agricultural economy." Since its formation in 1985, Pheasants Forever has been one of the nation's strongest supporters of CRP. A voluntary program for agricultural landowners, CRP provides annual rental payments and cost-share assistance for the establishment of long-term, resource conserving covers on eligible farmland. The millions of acres of CRP lands in the United States protect topsoil erosion, improve water and air quality and is a major contributor to increasing wildlife populations – including pheasants and quail – in many parts of the country. Pheasants Forever is dedicated to the conservation of pheasants, quail and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public awareness, education and land management policies and programs.
8/9/10		Forester hired to help stop ash borer near LaCrosse By Dena Harris Vernon County Broadcaster | Posted: Sunday, July 25, 2010 A forester will lead efforts to control further spread of the emerald ash borer in the region by working with landowners to manage woodlands along the Mississippi River. The invasive beetle turned up in Victory in southwestern Vernon County in April 2009, after first appearing in the state a year earlier in two southeastern counties. The state Department of Natural Resources placed traps in ash trees along the Mississippi last summer to document the insect's spread in the area. The forest management project will be headed by Patrick Dayton of Southwest Badger RC&D, a nonprofit organization that covers nine counties. Dayton said the DNR hired Southwest Badger to work with landowners in a 15-mile radius of Victory in Vernon and Crawford counties to help them reduce the number of ash trees to minimize the borer's spread. A grant will cover Dayton's wages for one to two years. "They can't say for sure where (the ash borer) launched itself from," Dayton said. "That one area in Victory is the highest density of it (in southwest Wisconsin), so that's where they believe it started." He noted the ash borer also has been found in Iowa and Minnesota. "I do believe it's probably throughout the river basin, and they're worried about it not only spreading by the river, but also that there's a railroad track along the river as well," he said. The Asian insect feeds on ash trees during its larval stage. Borers attack the soft wood between the bark and the wood where vessels carry water and nutrients, causing the tree to decline and die. Dayton said the bug came into its adult form in the past month, and he expected to hear of more sites where it has been found. "But I haven't heard of any yet," he said. "They're really worried about La Crosse. The emerald ash borer will probably be more of an urban problem than it will be a rural problem. If we have trees in the woods die, that's OK, but if we have trees in the cities die, people get pretty worried about it." Ash trees in the area mostly are along creeks and the rivers, although about 5 to 10 percent of ash trees also are on hillsides. He said the ash borer will only move a mile a year, less if it has enough habitat. Transporting firewood remains the main threat to spread the ash borer, Dayton said.
10/9/09		Judge backs Wis. law aimed at managed forest lands ROBERT IMRIE | Posted: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 5:30 pm from the WI State Journal, Madison A Dane County judge has upheld a new law that bans owners of private land enrolled in a state-managed forest program from leasing the land for hunting. But the judge ruled a portion of the law that immediately scrapped existing leases was unconstitutional. The ruling affects about 3 million acres of land in a state Department of Natural Resources program that offers huge property tax breaks in return for making more private land accessible to the public for recreational uses, authorities said. DNR attorney Quinn Williams said Wednesday the agency was happy with the decision that mostly upheld changes in the program designed to stop abuses and close some legal loopholes. A typical hunting lease generally runs year-to-year anyway, he said. According to court records, the Legislature passed the managed forest lands law in 1985, allowing landowners to enroll property for 25 or 50 years and either open it to the public for recreational activities or close it to public access. The property tax break is less for land that is closed. The program was designed to better manage the lands as well as provide hunters and other outdoor users access to more private property. A new law effective January 2008 banned landowners from leasing land for exclusive hunting and declared all existing leases as void, ending a practice that had been allowed for at least 12 years. Tigerton Lumber Co. of Tigerton, with 22,000 acres in the program and at least 26 separate leases to hunters involving 2,800 acres, sued the state a year ago, claiming the law was an unconstitutional taking of their property. The company said it would cost it $644,000 in "withdrawal fees" to pull the land from the program and continue leasing it. Jerry Ort Jr., a co-owner of the sawmill business, said Wednesday that money from the leases provided "huge revenue for us" at a time when he was laying off workers. He said the company did not intend to withdraw from the program, and no decision had been made whether to appeal the ruling. Sen. Russ Decker, D-Weston, who was involved in the 2008 law change, did not immediately return a telephone message Wednesday. Kathy Nelson, the DNR's forest tax section chief, said 3.04 million acres of forest land are enrolled in the program, with about 1 million acres signed up by industrial owners like Tigerton Lumber. She said 1.2 million acres were open to public access. It's unknown how many of the closed 1.8 million acres are leased to hunters, she said. Land closed to hunting gets a 75 percent break on property taxes, while land left open gets a 95 percent break, Nelson said. The DNR said that between 1987 and 2004, one acre of land was open to the public for every 1.3 acres that was closed. However, between 2005 and 2008, when 422,000 new acres were enrolled, the ratio changed dramatically _ one acre open for every four acres closed. It's evidence that more landowners saw leasing as a "revenue generator," Nelson said. In a 17-page ruling issued Tuesday in Madison, Circuit Judge Sarah O'Brien ruled the managed forest program only establishes policy by creating a voluntary program. Therefore, she said, Tigerton had "no vested property right in leasing its lands" signed up for the tax break for the state to illegally seize. There has always been a limit on the amount of acreage that could be closed, suggesting a goal of ensuring public access, O'Brien said. But the law went too far in scrapping the existing leases, she said. "The history of regulation of MFL (managed forest law) lands would lead a reasonable landowner not to expect impairment of the right to lease lands, especially not a retroactive impairment," the judge wrote. The state had no vital public interest that would be "destroyed" by letting existing leases expire on their own, O'Brien said. "It was not necessary to make the statute retroactive, thus impairing existing contracts, in order to fulfill the goal of the statute."
4/2/09		Good news: There is interest in changing the Fence Law Bad news: It didn’t get changed in the most recent legislature Update – Good news: There is a new bill SB 136 by James Sorenson Senate Bill 136 is sponsored by Senators Senators HOLPERIN, LEHMAN, COWLES, PLALE and OLSEN, cosponsored by Representatives MURSAU and CLARK . It has been referred to Committee on Agriculture and Higher Education. Read the bill at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2009/data/SB-136.pdf The past legislative session saw the introduction of a promising Fence Law reform bill. The bill was numbered AB 796 and may still be viewed on the Wisconsin State Legislature web page at: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2007/data/AB-796.pdf The bill was quite simple in concept. Briefly, it changed the wording in the current law so that shared fences would be required only when both of two adjoining landowners used their properties for pasturing livestock. This would remove the onerous element of shared-fence responsibilities when only one of the landowners pastured livestock. To read the entire note, CLICK HERE. To read the Farm Bureau’s letter, CLICK HERE. To read James Sorenson’s statement to the state Assembly, CLICK HERE. To read WWOA’s letter, CLICK HERE.