Earth Day is today April 22

On Farms and Ranches, Every Day Is Earth Day 

By: Nivin A. Elgohary, State Executive Director, Virginia Farm Service Agency

and John A. Bricker, State Conservationist, Natural Resources Conservation Service

An op ed from Farm Services USDA

At USDA, we celebrate Earth Day 2019 by offering a big “thank you” to farmers and ranchers here in Virginia for all they do. Every day we witness their efforts to conserve natural resources while producing food, fiber and fuel for people in their communities and around the world. They are doing what needs to be done to make sure we all enjoy the benefits of clean and plentiful water and healthy soils, ecosystems and wildlife habitat.

This year’s Earth Day theme, “Protect Our Species,”highlights the responsibility we share in supporting wildlife. Two-thirds of the land in the continental United States is privately owned, and the decisions that farmers and ranchers make for their land can have a great impact on wildlife. 

We at USDA believe people and wildlife can thrive together. USDA’s Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service assist agricultural producers with adopting conservation practices that benefit not only farms, ranches and forest lands, but wildlife species.

Producers across the nation have played and continue to play important roles in helping wildlife species flourish, rebound or recover. A notable example: ranchers in the West are part of the public-private effort to support the greater sage grouse and bi-state sage grouse. In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that neither species needed protections under the Endangered Species Act because of the successful conservation efforts underway.

Similarly, in New England, forest landowners managing for diverse forests have helped the New England cottontail rabbit rebound. In the Southeast, the Louisiana black bear, once in population peril, appears to have fully recovered because of farmers who returned marginal croplands to bottomland hardwood forests. And in the Willamette River Valley of Oregon, the Oregon chub benefitted from conservation easements that protected much-needed habitat. This species became the first fish in the history of the Endangered Species Act to recover.

USDA offers a wide array of Farm Bill programs to help Virginia producers increase yields and profits while making wildlife-friendly improvements to croplands, grazing lands and working forests. Programs include the Conservation Reserve Program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. USDA also offers free conservation advice as well and financial assistance to help implement conservation practices.

We encourage all Virginia farmers and ranchers to reach out to their local FSA and NRCS representatives at your nearest USDA service center to see if there is a program right for their operation. Find your nearest office online at farmers.gov/service-locator. 

–Submitted by Jean Hazelgrove, Farm Service Agency, USDA