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Kansas Technical Committee Minutes - April 2009
Kansas Technical Committee (KTC) Jeffrey L. Gross, Assistant State Conservationist for Water Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), opened the teleconference and took roll call. Eric Banks, State Conservationist (STC), NRCS, welcomed those who were listening in and the reason for the teleconference. The meeting was then turned over to Lynn E. Thurlow, Soil Conservationist, NRCS, to lead the discussion on ranking requirements for the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP). The 2008 Farm Bill refined, or better indentified, the ranking considerations to be used for FRPP. The ranking considerations were posted in the Federal Register Interim Final Rule for FRPP on January 16, 2009. Eight national-ranking factors are required and eight state-ranking factors are optional. The Kansas Technical Committee (KTC) FRPP Subcommittee met on March 23, 2009, to review ranking factors and scoring of the factors for 2009. The draft Kansas FRPP ranking and scoring form was reviewed. Documents on this page require
Acrobat Reader. Discussion focused first on the optional state-ranking factors with an explanation of the two factors considered for 2009. The ranking factor of “parcel is within designated county where the enrollment of particular lands may help achieve national, state, and regional conservation goals and objectives” stimulated good discussion. Lynn referred the group to the draft 2009 Kansas Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program Plan. DRAFT 2009 Kansas FRPP Plan (PDF; 254 KB) (Text version of map) It was pointed out the KTC had already made a recommendation to the STC to designate all counties in Kansas as eligible counties for FRPP and incorporated in this plan. Counties previously designated as eligible counties in the 2002 Kansas Farmland Protection Program Plan would now be designated as “counties where the enrollment of particular lands may help achieve national, state, and regional conservation goals and objectives.” In addition to these counties, Russell, Lincoln, Ellsworth, Saline, and Ottawa counties were designated as counties that had lands that would help achieve national, state, and regional conservation goals and objectives. Concern was expressed that there may be more counties than what were identified if critical habitat for the lesser prairie chicken was considered. The sand sage prairie should be considered. The FRPP Subcommittee had discussed this in length already and for sake of time, recommended keeping the designation simple this year and revisiting for future ranking consideration. It was discussed that Osborne County was inadvertently left off the group of Smoky Hills counties added as designated counties for conservation goals and objectives and will be added to the final plan for 2009. Discussion then moved to the national ranking factors and the scoring of those factors. The amount of weight for scoring is a decision for each state. The FRPP Subcommittee provided the highest points for those factors that would protect farmland that had prime soils or soils of statewide importance. Parcels that were adjacent to other protected areas would also receive higher ranking scores. There was discussion as to what should be considered other protected areas. It was decided that all protected areas, including existing U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) easements, military installations, state and federally owned lands, and any other area that is permanently protected by a conservation easement would be considered for this ranking factor. One other item of concern was the disparity for smaller specialty farms in the scoring process. The national focus is for parcels that are equal or larger than the county average farm size where the parcel is located. Discussion ended on this factor, deferring to next year as a possible consideration for one of the state factors addressing this concern. The recommendation to the NRCS State Conservationist is to utilize the Kansas Ranking Factors and Scoring Sheet (4/09), as presented for the FRPP. Osborne County should be added to the designated counties for lands that may help achieve national, state, and regional conservation goals and objectives. Participant List:
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