USDA offers Stoddard County farmers chance to create waterfowl habitat in response to Gulf oil spill

DEXTER, Mo. -- The effects of the Gulf oil spill are about to hit home in Stoddard County.

The Daily Statesman newspaper reported the USDA's National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is starting a program offering farmers incentives to turn land into waterfowl habitat to accommodate migratory birds.

According to the local USDA office in Bloomfield, more then 50 million migrating birds will instinctively head for marshes and coastal lands of the northern Gulf of Mexico in the months ahead. Under the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative, NRCS will work with area farmers to manage portions of their land to attract the migrating birds and to provide them with food and habitat.

Stoddard is one of 18 counties deemed by NRCS as "priority areas" for the alternative migratory project where producers are encouraged to allow flooding of all or portions of their acreage to accommodate the migrating birds.

These priority areas are eligible for the program because they include wetlands farmed under natural conditions, they are existing farmed wetlands or are prior converted croplands.

"Rice fields are particularly suited for this initiative, says Charlie Rahm, who serves as public affairs officer with the USDA NRCS office in Columbia, Mo., "as are aquaculture farms no longer in production. Shallow water, ranging from mudflats to less than one foot is key to creating suitable habitat."

Rahm says reimbursement to farmers who agree to take part in this initiative will vary.

"There are a number of variable rates," Rahm explains, "including elements that include discing, pumping, and aerial seeding."

The idea behind the project, he notes, involves reflooding of ricelands and flooding some areas earlier than the normal season dictates, making available wetlands that stand from four inches to about one foot in depth.

Farmers who qualify for the program, which is designed to draw migrating birds to the area rather than for them to head to the Gulf, will be reimbursed by the government for complying with the program, according to USDA officials.

NRCS will use technical expertise and financial resources from existing Farm Bill programs to provide resources to agricultural producers to install practices. Essential practices will control water levels and enhance habitat to attract the birds.

At least three existing programs will aid in the implementation of the plan to expand habitat for migrating birds, Rahm explains.

Farmers who wish to sign up for the Expand Habitat for Migrating Birds are encouraged to contact their local USDA Service Center or visit www.nrcs.usda.gov.