Bay Foundation: Conservation Cuts Hurt Farms, Bay
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- The Chesapeake Bay Foundation says a House vote to cut farm conservation programs is a significant blow not only to farmers but local economies and Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation said Friday that the House voted to cut conservation programs for farmers and landowners by $645 million and reduce acreage in the Wetlands and Grasslands Reserve Programs by 160,000 acres. The bay foundation says it will work to restore the conservation funding when the Senate takes up the budget later this summer.
Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service announced Friday that six conservation programs in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania will receive $3.5 million. The programs are designed to promote voluntary conservation efforts to help restore the bay and its tributaries.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
