Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today joined Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow to “launch a new era in American conservation efforts with an historic focus on public-private partnership.”

Vilsack and Stabenow announced the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) today during a visit to the Saginaw Bay watershed of the Great Lakes agricultural region. “This is an entirely new approach to conservation,” said Vilsack. “We’re giving private companies, local communities, and other non-government partners a way to invest in what are essentially clean water start-up operations. By establishing new public-private partnerships, we can have an impact that’s well beyond what the Federal government could accomplish on its own.”

The critical conservation areas Secretary Vilsack announced today are: the Great Lakes Region, Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Mississippi River Basin, Longleaf Pine Range, Columbia River Basin, California Bay Delta, Prairie Grasslands, and the Colorado River Basin.

Also participating in the announcement today were Diane Holdorf, Chief Sustainability Officer at The Kellogg Company, and Sean McMahon, North American Agriculture Program Director at The Nature Conservancy. [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/usda/conservation-projects.mp3″ text=”USDA Conservation Projects”]