Welcome to Skagit County

February 17th, 2009

Federal Funds Available to Help Farmers Repair Storm Damage

(Spokane, WA), Feb. 12, 2009 – Financial assistance is available for farmers and ranchers who have debris to remove or conservation practices to repair as a result of the January storms and floods in nine Washington counties. The Farm Service Agency will allocate $950,000 in Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) funding in Washington state to help producers recover from the storm damage according to Rod Hamilton, Farm Service Agency Program Chief in Spokane.
Counties where FSA is offering ECP funds include Grays Harbor, King, Kittitas, Lewis, Pacific, Pierce, Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom.
Eligible producers will receive cost-share assistance of up to 75 percent of the cost of the approved practice, as determined by FSA county committees. Producers may apply for the Emergency Conservation Reserve Program in their local U.S. Department of Agriculture Service Center. The end date for accepting applications varies by county.

The ECP program gives producers additional resources to remove debris from farmland, restore fences and conservation structures and grade and shape farmland damaged by a natural disaster. The program is administered by FSA’s state and county committees. Locally-elected county committees are authorized to implement ECP for all disasters except drought, which is authorized at the national office of FSA.
For a producer’s land to be eligible, the disaster must create new conservation problems that, if untreated, would impair or endanger the land and affect its productive capacity.

Conservation problems existing prior to the applicable disaster are ineligible for ECP assistance.
USDA offers additional programs to help farmers and ranchers recover from damages caused by natural disasters. These programs include the Emergency Loan Program, Federal Crop Insurance and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. More information on ECP and other disaster assistance programs is available at local FSA offices and online at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/wa.