PES Working Group Reaches Consensus: Many stakes in the game on increasing $$$ for farms

The PES and Soil Health Working Group reached a consensus at their thirty-first meeting on November 1, 2022, at the VAAFM Williston office to enhance the federal Conservation Stewardship Program with a Vermont enhancement (see photo). This milestone decision now leads the way to finalize the pilot approach recommendation from the Working Group. This approach was chosen after the group expressed a preference for enhancing existing programs. Goals include to enhance payments and enrollment and thereby increase the ability to access more federal funds in the future that could be used to develop a Vermont specific enhancement program. 

“This approach would support farms to enroll their whole farm into the CSP program and have their cropland, pastureland, production area, and associated agricultural land be assessed against performance-based stewardship thresholds. State supplemental payments under this approach would initially support farms in their first year of engagement with the CSP program through the ‘resource assessment’ phase, which is a valuable exercise for farms and promotes comprehensive stewardship planning on the farm. Additional state supplemental funds would then compensate farmers for committing to increased stewardship upon execution of the CSP agreement. Finally, additional supplemental payments will be released by the state annually for successful implementation of the CSP plan, which will support engagement in the program over the five years of the agreement.”

Draft Approach 6: USDA-NRCS Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) With a Vermont State Enhancement (VSE)

For more information please visit the DRAFT pilot approach here and the meeting summary or recording.