By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The USDA last week took a step toward finding a solution to greenhouse gas problems. Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the agency has approved spending $7.4 million on nine large-scale greenhouse gas mitigation projects in 24 states.

“We’re hopeful this will create more collaboration between the USDA and the private sector,” said Vilsack. “We’re very pleased with the interest that’s been expressed in this effort.”

The projects run the gamut from establishing a forest carbon protocol in the state of Washington to figuring out a way to bring greenhouse gas benefits to the marketplace in Illinois, Michigan and Oklahoma, to a grassland greenhouse gas project in North Dakota and South Dakota.

“All of this is designed to give us a sense of what works and how we can develop markets,” said Vilsack. “There are opportunities for farmers and ranchers to help them stimulate their bottom line.”

Vilsack said, “This is designed to test market the concept. Most of these are strategies for various production processes. We’re excited about the breadth of the projects – crops, livestock and fertilizer.”

Dave White, chief of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, which helps fund the projects through its Environmental Quality Incentives Program, said the goal is to create a viable carbon market in the United States.
“We’re going to see a lot of new protocols developed,” said White. “We’re ground testing models to see if they’re accurate. It’s all part of a farm smart effort. We’re developing a stewardship tool kit to evaluate stewardship practices.

“My belief is that showing how these markets work will help increase the profitability or reduce the cost for dairy producers, for instance,” said White. “It’s a pretty ambitious project.”

The $7.4 million that has been made available will become $14.8 million once a 50 percent non-federal funding match is applied to the projects, said White. The goal is to encourage the private sector to get involved in the effort.
“We see future income possibilities through these projects,” said Vilsack. “We have recently done several assessments of what works, and in addition to conservation practices, to be effective we need to quantify practices and what results occur.

“This creates a potential market. If you can’t quantify what you’re doing, you can’t create a market or an incentive for private investment.”

An additional goal, said Vilsack, is eliminating or reducing some government costs by the increase use of conservation practices. “It might be better to work with producers than spending money on new treatment facilities. This isn’t just a response to greenhouse gases; it’s a reaction to other environmental benefits. It could be a way to avoid higher costs.”
The nine large-scale projects announced Wednesday are:

•Applied Ecological Services Inc. (Washington, Oregon, Idaho) $550,000. The project will try to develop a large-scale agricultural carbon project on Shepherd’s Grain and surrounding land in partnership with landowners in the Palouse region, and provide a roadmap for developing large-scale high quality and low cost carbon transactions. The introduction of sustainable, low-carbon practices have the potential to restore fertility.

•Delta Institute (Illinois, Oklahoma, Michigan) $400,000. The Conservation Technology Information Center, Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma Conservation Commission and Delta Institute will hold educational producer workshops. The three-year project will work to create new methodologies and environmental regulations. The participants will document the fluctuations in the price of carbon, new protocols and environmental regulations. The goal is to create environmental benefits and economic opportunities through market based innovation.

•Unison Resource Company (Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan) $1,055,996. This pilot project is being set up to show beef and dairy operators that there are incentives for them to create innovative feeding and manure management systems. The goal is to reduce methane nitrous oxide emissions and create economic opportunity through carbon credits.

•Chesapeake Bay Foundation (Maryland, Virginia) $454,979.
The goal of this project is to develop a greenhouse gas tool for estimating nitrous oxide emissions through nutrient management. The intent is to reduce some of the technological and financial barriers to certifying carbon offset credits generated by nutrient management projects.

•The Fertilizer Institute (Illinois, Iowa) $1,428,745. This project is designed to increase productivity and nutrient use efficiency, as well as generate revenue from the monetization of carbon credits. The effort will evaluate existing nitrous oxide protocols and create a streamlined Smart Nitrogen Application Program.

•Dairy Science Institute Inc. (California, Florida, Idaho, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Texas, Oregon, Washington) $1,101,600. The objective of this project is to develop a fully-tested, innovative and unique tool to measure, benchmark and provide feedback on the environmental impact of dairy farming at the farm level. The goal is to create an easy-to-use tool kit to evaluate current stewardship practices on dairy farms, make suggestions for improving those practices and connect producers to funds that can help pay for the changes.

•Ducks Unlimited Inc. (North Dakota, South Dakota) $161,180. This effort will look at creating the tools for grassland producers to receive compensation for the carbon storage benefit of retaining rangeland that would otherwise be converted to cropland through the sale of carbon offsets.

•Environmental Defense Fund (Arkansas, California) $1,089,343. This initiative builds on recent work by the EDF in California and Arkansas in collaboration with the rice industry to create and secure approval of a methodology for emission reduction by rice producers.

•Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation (Washington) $1,226,375. This project is looking for a way to overcome a variety of market-based barriers to the entry for American Indians and Alaska Natives in the private sector. The goal is to examine forest carbon methodologies and address issues involving tribal sovereignty and create a streamlined system where carbon methodologies can be applied to the tribe.