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Extension Service for each state and the land grant university system and agricultural colleges of the state. 

 Existing practices and such other practices as may be identified in consultation with the affected industry 

 or community should be taken into account. 



Mitigation Requirements & Delineation Activities — Fanners, ranchers and natural resource managers 

 believe the federal government needs to speak with one voice. However, because of the inconsistency 

 caused by separate determinations made under the Farm Bill and the Clean Water Act, producers have 

 too often received conflicting answers firom the four different agencies currently having some regulatory 

 responsibility for wetlands. 



Unfortunately, the problem seems to be worsening. Recently, the EPA made a decision to join the Corps 

 in using the 1987 Army Corps of Engineers manual when defming a wetland, while the Soil Conservation 

 Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service are using a different definition from the 1990 Farm Bill. A 

 wetlands determination will now be made from two different definitions, two different regulations and 

 four different agencies. 



Mitigation requirements for agricultural wetlands under section 404 should be revised to be consistent with 

 the swampbuster requirements in the 1990 Farm Bill. 



The 1990 Farm Bill also directs the Soil Conservation Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service to 

 identify wetlands. Any identification or classification system established under the Clean Water Act for 

 agricultural lands should be consistent with those contained in the 1990 Farm Bill. 



Wetlands Reserve Program — The 1990 Farm Bill authorized the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) for 

 the restoration and protection of wetlands through the purchase of easements on prior converted cropland 

 and farmed wetlands. In fiscal 1992, Congress appropriated $46,357 million to USDA for a pilot 

 program and set a maximum enrollment of 50,000 acres. Landowners demonstrated substantial interest 

 in the restoration and protection of agricultural wetlands. Owners of 2,337 farms submitted bids. 



More than 60 percent of the total accepted acreage (30,868 acres) will be restored to wetlands; 14,105 

 acres will be restored to marshlands, wet meadows, or potholes; 3,374 acres will be restored to other 

 types of wetlands; and 1,542 acres are riparian areas or upland buffers adjacent to restored wetlands that 

 will provide habitat complimentary to the wetlands. An estimated 7,509 acres will directly benefit the 

 recovery of threatened or endangered species. 



Due to a permanent commodity program base acreage reduction of 10,113 acres, it is estimated that 

 deficiency payments will be reduced by $3.4 million during the 1993 to 1998 period, and CRP rental 

 payments will be reduced by about $700,000 since 2,056 CRP acres are entering the program. 



Congress appropriated no additional funds for the WRP in fiscal 1993. NASD A believes continued and 

 increased fijnding will assist in conserving and enhancing our wetlands resource. 



Executive Branch MOA — The four federal agencies with wetlands protection responsibilities signed a 

 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), in January 1994, recognizing the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) 

 as the lead federal agency for delineating wetlands on agricultural lands. The agreement — signed by 

 SCS, EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) — is 

 designed to enable fanners to rely on SCS wetland maps for determining the extent of wetlands for both 

 the Farm Bill's Swampbuster program and section 404 of the CWA. 



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