North-central eligible for emergency program

A program to prevent wind erosion has found new life this year.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency is providing emergency funding for a program to prevent wind erosion and reduce health and safety hazards in 11 north-central Montana counties.

The new program is identical to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which was funded by USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service. It pays for seeding new plant cover and for no-till chemical application of weed control.

"When we ran out of money in one pocket, we switched to the other pocket," Mike Zook, director of...