3.1 Introduction

 

The text contained within this section of the Cross-Cut budget provides written descriptions for the project(s) identified in Tables 1, 2 and 3. The text is presented separately for each of the respective Federal and State Agencies/ Departments by functional area and provides a detailed description of the intended use of the funds requested to be appropriated for FY 01.  An individual matrix summary table is also included for use as a reference tool for all Federal Agency(s)/Department(s) at the beginning of each individual section.

 

 

 

USDA budget matrix for fiscal years 1993- 2001
(thousands of dollars)
Function/Project name	1993 Actual	1994 Actual	1995 Actual	1996 Actual	1997 Actual	1998 Actual	1999    Actual	2000 Actual	2001  PB
NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
NRCS
On-Farm assistance/Technical Coordination	1,900	1,900	2,900	3,435	3,535	3,535	5,088	6,456	$9,397
SCIENCE:  RESEARCH
ARS
General Research	2,814	3,033	2,092	2,046	2,025	3,264	4,045	4,148	4,448
TOTALS	4,714	4,933	4,992	5,481	5,560	6,799	9,133	10,604	13,845

 

 

 

l    On-Farm Assistance/Technical Coordination ($9,397,000)

 

Base Program ($2,640,000)

The NRCS provides technical assistance to individuals and groups on privately owned land to conserve renewable natural resources within the Everglades ecosystem on a voluntary basis. Water management assistance includes the application of best management practices (BMPs) to conserve water used to produce vegetables, citrus and pastures as well as on urban lands, such as lawns, parks, golf courses, and other open space. It also includes the operation of Mobile Irrigation Laboratories to assist land users in reducing irrigation-water use and nutrient loading to downstream receiving waters. Assistance is provided to livestock producers to encourage application of BMPs, including animal waste management systems and fencing of streams and canals to reduce off-farm nutrient discharges.  NRCS provides wetland determination on agricultural lands as required by the 1985 and 1990 Farm Bill.  NRCS is the lead agency in providing a detailed soil survey, including interpretations, on privately owned lands. 

 

Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Project ($1,000,000)

The EAA Project is a special effort to assist the farmers in the EAA and the C-139 basin in meeting requirements outlined in Florida's 1994 Everglades Forever Act.  Assistance is provided on a voluntary basis to develop management plans that address natural resource concerns in the EAA.  These concerns include: phosphorus loading, soil subsidence, water quality and quantity, suspended sediments, water and wind erosion, agricultural sustainability, and threatened and endangered species. 

 

South Florida Community-Urban Resource Partnership (SFUCRP) ($365,000)

The SFCURP provides funding and on-site technical assistance to natural resource restoration and education efforts in the Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.  Funding is provided by USDA's Forest Service and NRCS.  The SFCURP's established steering committee that includes federal, state and local agencies, non-profit organizations, local business and foundations, provides overall program direction and priority setting.  The Steering Committee selects priority natural resource projects through a grant application process that matches federal dollars with local, state or non-profit dollars.

 

Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) (Technical and Financial Assistance: $2,000,000)

The WRP is a voluntary program offering landowners a chance to receive payments for restoring and protecting wetlands on their property.  The WRP provides a unique opportunity for farmers to retire marginal agricultural lands.  WRP obtains conservation easements from participating landowners and provides cost-share payments for wetland restoration.  Through the WRP, the USDA restores and protects valuable wetland acres. 

 

Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) (Technical and Financial Assistance: $1,157,000)

The EQIP is a voluntary program offering land users financial, technical and educational help to install or implement structural, vegetative and/or management practices where there are significant natural resource concerns that impact water quality and quantity, wildlife habitat, wetlands or grazing lands.  Cost sharing may be up to 75% of the cost of the BMP's called for in 5 - 10 year contracts.

Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) (Financial Assistance: $100,000) WHIP provides financial incentives to develop habitat for fish and wildlife on private lands.  Participants agree to implement a wildlife habitat development plan, and USDA agrees to provide cost-share assistance through 5 - 10 year contracts for the initial implementation of wildlife habitat development practices.

 

 

Farmland Protection Program (FPP) (Financial Assistance: $2,000,000) 

FPP provides funds to State, tribal, or local government entities to help purchase development rights to keep productive farmland in agricultural use.  USDA joins with other government or tribal interests to acquire conservation easements or other interests from landowners.  The land must be privately owned and be a part of a pending offer from a non-Federal government agency or Indian tribe.

 

Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) (Technical Assistance $135,000)

RC&D Project areas are established through requests of local Councils to address the conservation, development and utilization of natural resources to improve the standard of living and enhance the environment.  These not for profit Councils are established as Florida Corporations to address and solve identified problems with help of federal, state, and local government and private sources. A Council has been established in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties and another that includes the counties of Glades, Hendry, Highlands, Polk and Osceola.

 

3.2.2 Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-  ($4,448,000)

 

 

The ARS mission is to develop and transfer solutions to agriculture problems of high national priority; to provide information access and dissemination to ensure high-quality, safe food and other agricultural products; assess the nutritional needs of Americans; sustain a competitive agricultural economy; enhance the natural resource base and the environment; and provide economic opportunities for rural citizens, communities, and society. Related to the South Florida Restoration Initiative, ARS conducts research on sustainable agriculture production systems for sugarcane and other crops, improved water management, reduced plant stress and protection, and biological control of invasive species. Individual projects are as follows:

 

 

 

 

·        Development of Improved Sugarcane Varieties and their Use in Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems ($1,397,400)

The primary mission of the Sugarcane Field Station in Canal Point, Florida is to develop high-yielding, disease-resistant sugarcane varieties.  In the past 29 years, researchers at Canal Point have released more than 40 sugarcane varieties in Florida.  Work has now been ongoing at Canal Point for several years that aims to quantify and improve sugarcane’s water tolerance and phosphorus uptake characteristics.  As substantive information becomes available, it is hoped that it will be used to integrate sugarcane production in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) with other linked regions of the Everglades so that it will become advantageous for EAA growers to use practices that will help meet water quality, quantity, and timing goals of Everglades restoration.

 

Research objectives of these projects are: (1) quantify and genetically improve sugarcane’s tolerance to wetter conditions, (2) determine seasonal flood-drain cycles that improve or maintain yields while controlling soil subsidence, and  (3) quantify and genetically improve sugarcane’s ability to yield well with less phosphorus fertilizer or to yield well and take up more soil phosphorus.

 

·        Hydrologic Evaluation and Water Quality Studies Affecting Dade County    ($907,400) 

An ARS Hydrologist was hired in 1998 and stationed at the Subtropical Horticulture Research Laboratory in Miami, Florida, and an agronomist/ engineer will be hired in June of 2000.  Current funding totals $607,400 and a program increase of $300,000 is proposed in FY 01 as part of the Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources (CENR) initiative on Integrated Science for Ecological Challenges.  A water quality scientist/ chemist would be hired in FY 01 if funds are appropriated.

 

The mission of the Everglades Agro-Hydrology Research Unit is to provide hydrologic science and technology needed to sustain agricultural production and a quality environment in regions with minimal drainage and shallow ground water.  The objectives of the unit are: (1) to assess the interrelationships between the hydrology of the drainage practices and agricultural production in regions with shallow ground water; (2) to understand the hydrology including nonpoint source water pollution; (3) to determine best management practices to reduce the impact of agricultural practices on water quality; (4) to develop a farm-scale, computer model that will simulate the water balance, crop production, and pesticide and nutrient movement within the unsaturated zone; and (5) to link the farm-scale model with other regional hydrologic models.

 

·        Sugarcane Variety Response to Stresses of High Water Table, Soil Type, and Climate Change; Sustainable Agriculture Systems for Controlling Organic Soil Subsidence and Nutrient Runoff ($448,200)

Two research projects are being conducted at the Crop Genetics and Environmental Research Unit in Gainesville, Florida. On the first project, research has been conducted for 3 years on four sugarcane varieties that are being grown in computer-controlled, temperature–gradient greenhouses using two CO₂ atmospheric concentrations (360 and 700 ppm), two soil types (organic and mineral), two water-table depths (8 and 20 inches below the soil surface), and four temperatures.  Preliminary results indicate increases in productivity by about 10% with the higher water-table practice.  The variety CP 72-2086 tolerated flood conditions well.  CP 73-1547 had poor flood tolerance, but responded well to increased CO₂.  There appear to be variety interactions with water-table depths, soil type, and CO₂ X water-table practice.  These results suggest that scientists will successfully identify sugarcane adapted to high productivity under conditions that will conserve organic soils and curtail nutrient losses from fields.

 

On a related study, the growth of two varieties of sugarcane was evaluated at three water-table depths (2 inches above the soil surface and 6 and 18 inches below the soil surface).  The two higher water-table depths were imposed beginning at 20, 88, and 133 days after planting, resulting in treatment durations of 232,164, and 119 days.  Preliminary analysis of the data indicated that plants grew best under the 6-inch water–table depth below the soil surface for all durations and that early flooding with the 2-inch water-table depth above the soil surface was particularly detrimental to sugarcane growth.

 

On a second project, ARS scientists in Gainesville have developed a family of simple, mechanistic crop growth models that have proved ARS scientists beneficial in evaluating and predicting crop responses to the environment.  These models have predicted crop responses to soil water availability and nutrient availability.  Working with Australian scientists, these models will be modified to predict water requirements (evapotranspiration) and nutrient runoff impacts for sugarcane production in the EAA. Knowledge of agricultural evapotranspiration and nutrient runoff are being incorporated into regional water management models for south Florida.  

 

·        Biological Control and Management of Aquatic Weeds/Invasive Plant Species in south Florida ($1,695,000)

ARS has conducted research in the biological control of weeds in South Florida for more than 50 years.  During the period, alligatorweed, water lettuce, and water hyacinth have been partially or entirely controlled.  Since 1989, ARS Aquatic Weeds Research Unit in Ft. Lauderdale and Gainesville, Florida has cooperated with the ARS Australian Biological Control of Weeds Laboratory for research on biological control of melaleuca.  Research is continuing under current funding to develop management strategies and biological control agents that are efficient, economical, and environmentally sound.  The research includes overseas surveys for biocontrol agents of melaleuca, old world climbing fern, skunkvine, water hyacinth, water lettuce, Brazilian pepper tree, and giant salvinia; quarantine evaluation (requiring quarantine facilities) of natural enemies for melaleuca control; release and establishment of melaleuca-control management system; and evaluation of the biological control of hydrilla, water hyacinth, water lettuce, and giant salvinia by biological control agents.

 

The research has been expanded to (1) identify and collect, through cooperative efforts of ARS Biological Control Laboratories in Australia, Europe, and South America, natural enemies for control of Melaleuca quinquenervia and other invasive pest plants; (2) evaluate biological control agents for control of melaleuca and other exotic plant species under U.S. quarantine conditions and obtain approvals of qualified natural enemies; and (3) develop biological-based integrated pest (weed) management strategies that are efficient, economical, and environmentally sound.  The release of approved biological control agents will be integrated with other methods of exotic plant species control (chemical, culture, and physical), determination of optimum re-vegetation methods, and an evaluation of compliance with economic and environmental impact assessments on control measures.  Plans are underway to begin construction of a new quarantine facility in Ft. Lauderdale in FY 00.