Breaking news: USDA to hold flood meeting today on Rocky Boy

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is stepping in this afternoon to tell the Chippewa Cree Tribal govenment and residents of RockyBoy's Indian Reservation about programs it has to help people deal with damage from the recent flooding.

Hill County Farm Service Agency Office Executive Director Mike Zook said this morning that the Emergency Conservation Program also has been approved to help Hill County agricultural producers deal with the cost of flood damage in the county.

State directors of USDA's Farm Service Agency, Natural Resource Conservation Service and Rural Development will be at Stone Child College on Upper Box Elder at Rocky Boy at 2 p.m. today. The officials will provide information about programs that could assist local ag producers, help repair infrastructure and communities, and assist the Tribal government in dealing with the flood damage.

Zook said that because flooding also extended off the reservation, including on Sage Creek and Beaver Creek, the Hill County FSA Committee approved using the Emergency Conservation Program, which could provide cost-share basis funding to producers to help pay for damage from the storm.'

That could include reshaping and flattening fields damaged by the flooding, removing debris, replacing fencing, and repairing irrigation systems and springs damaged by by the flooding..

The signup for the Emergency Conservation Program starts at the Hill County USDA Service Center on 2nd Street West Monday. Zook said that producers could begin work as soon as they are signed up, although there is no guarentee of a cost share because funding has not been provided at this point.

"But we needed to get this up and running," Zook said.