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Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition urges better recording of farmer-funded conservation practices, warns of funding gaps
Summary
Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition told a legislative committee it is field-verifying and entering thousands of acres of farmer-funded conservation practices into the Vermont agricultural partner database so those nutrient reductions count toward TMDL/EPA reporting, and urged more funding for conservation programs and district staffing. Committee members also discussed delayed federal relief and feed shortages for Vermont farms.
Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition representatives told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry committee that farmers are implementing many conservation practices out of pocket and those efforts are not fully captured in state and federal water-quality accounting unless they are recorded.
"I've recorded 13,000 acres of conservation practices," said Steve Longfield, executive director of the Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition, describing the group's field-verification work since 2022. Longfield and other coalition members said the group enters those farmer-funded practices into the Vermont agricultural partner database so associated nutrient reductions can be reported to the Agency of Agriculture and, ultimately, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The coalition framed…
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