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Kansas State Technical Committee Minutes - January 2004

Kansas State Technical Committee (KTC) Meeting
Tuesday - January 6, 2004
1:00 p.m. - Kansas Department of Health and Environment
Topeka, Kansas

Harold L. Klaege, State Conservationist, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) gave the welcome and opening remarks. Introductions were made.

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)

Bill R. Fuller, State Executive Director, Farm Service Agency, discussed conservation priority areas (CPAs) development for CRP Signup 29.

Rod Winkler, FSA, discussed the purpose of the meeting and reviewed the CPA recommendation of the KTC CRP Subcommittee:

Add HUC 11030014030050 immediately surrounding Cheney Lake to CPA-6, Cheney Lake and Bob White CPA.

Drop Kiowa County from CPA-1, Southwest Kansas Lesser Prairie Chicken. Kiowa County has reached the 25 percent cropland limitation and cannot accept general signup offers for signup 29.

Add the HUC areas immediately surrounding the following Kansas Lakes:

  • Milford Lake
  • Perry Lake
  • Tuttle Creek Lake
  • Kanopolis Lake
  • Cedar Bluff Reservoir
  • Keith Sebelius Lake

The drainage basin above these lakes were included in CPA’s during CRP Signup 26, however, the HUC’s immediately surrounding these lakes were not included.

If the 33 percent limit has not been reached, start in the Wet Walnut Watershed Area above Cheyenne Bottoms and work west through Barton, Rush, Pawnee, and Lane Counties adding HUC’s in the basin not in a CPA.

Barton and Rush Counties HUC’s will be added to CPA-7, Kanopolis and Pheasant Area, and Lane County HUC’s will be added to CPA-1, Southwestern Kansas Lesser Prairie Chicken Area.

If additional acreage remained available, the Bob White Quail area in Linn County would be included in the CPA-2, Bob White and Threatened and Endangered Recovery CPA-2 area.

General Discussion CRP CPA’s

A recommendation was made to rank the reservoir in a priority area based on the number of people utilizing the water supply in the event acres are not available to include all HUCs. Tracy Streeter suggested that State agencies could rank and justify the priority area of the listed reservoirs.

Ron Brown asked the KTC to consider Linn County a priority over any additional HUC in Lane County. This is a high priority area for quail, recreation, and water quality concerns. Troy Schroeder responded for the case of including Lane County as they are located in the Wet Walnut Watershed and the Lesser Prairie Chicken Areas.

It was recommended to switch priority 4 and 3 by limiting the HUCs to Barton, Rush, Pawnee Counties. This recommendation was not adopted by the group.

KTC reviewed the recommendation to add HUC only for:

  • Milford Lake
  • Tuttle Creek Lake
  • Kanopolis Lake
  • Perry Lake

KTC recommended establishing priorities as follows:

  1. Drop Kiowa
  2. Add HUCs for:
    • Cheney Lake
    • Tuttle Creek Lake
    • Perry Lake
    • Kanopolis Lake
    • Milford Lake
  3. Add HUCs for Wet Walnut

KTC Final Recommendation to Kansas FSA State Committee:

  1. Drop Kiowa Count from CPA 1—Lesser Prairie Chicken Area
  2. Add HUC’s immediately surrounding the following Kansas Lakes that are water supply sources for municipalities in the order listed, unless adjustments are necessary to maximize CPA area up to the limitation:
    1. Cheney Lake
    2. Milford Lake
    3. Perry Lake
    4. Tuttle Creek Lake
    5. Kanopolis Lake
  3. If additional acres remain—start in Wet Walnut Watershed above Cheyenne Bottoms working west through Barton, Rush, Pawnee, and Lane Counties add HUC’s in Watershed not in a CPA until the acreage limitation is reached.

NRCS Program Review

Harold Klaege encouraged KTC members to comment on the proposed rule for the CSP. He indicated approximately $41 million would be available nationwide for CSP participation.

Harold mentioned staff re-assignments within the NRCS State Office to balance workloads.

General CRP Discussion

Troy Schroeder, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, presented the following CRP issues for discussion with the KTC. He asked for KTC support in pursuing these issues with the National Office.

  • Remove CCRP acreage from the 25 percent county CRP cropland limitation.
  • Allow incidental grazing on CRP acres when grazing wheat pasture.
  • Limit managed haying CRP to 50 percent of the field. FSA state committee policy currently allows haying the entire field. Troy does not contest grazing 100 percent of the CRP acreage.
  • Add field borders as an eligible practice for center pivots under CCRP.

The CRP managed grazing season was discussed but recommendations were not specified. The current grazing season in Kansas is July 16 through November 12. It was mentioned some states may be abusing the nesting season by establishing a very short season. The KTC felt the April 15 –July 15 nesting season in Kansas is appropriately established.

Public Inquiry

Mr. Everett Royer, a local participant at the meeting, expressed a concern regarding the economic impact a large CRP signup would have on local businesses.  He was wondering if there was ever any consideration given to this fact by the Kansas State FSA Committee.

Meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.

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