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Hill, Blaine counties declared drought disaster areas by USDA

Added to list of declared counties, governor asks for statewide declaration

Editor’s note: This has been updated to include counties declared disaster areas Wednesday.

Multiple counties including Hill and Blaine counties have been added to the growing list of Montana counties declared drought disaster areas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The declarations by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack opens the opportunity for agricultural producers in those counties and in contiguous counties to federal disaster benefits.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the designation of Hill and Wheatland counties Tuesday in a letter to Gov. Greg Gianforte and the department added seven more counties including Blaine Wednesday.

Vilsack said the designation, based on records of drought listed on the U.S. Drought Monitor, makes farm operators in primary counties and those counties contiguous to such primary counties eligible to be considered for certain assistance from the Farm Service Agency, provided eligibility requirements are met.

The designation Tuesday impacts Hill and Wheatland counties as primary disaster areas and the contiguous counties are Blaine - already an eligible county in a previous disaster declaration - Chouteau, Liberty, Fergus, Judith Basin, Meagher, Golden Valley and Sweet Grass.

The designation Wednesday added Blaine, Beaverhead, Fergus, Golden Valley, Musselshell, Petroleum, Powder River and Rosebud counties as primary disaster areas with Big Horn, Carter, Chouteau, Custer, Deer Lodge, Garfield, Hill, Judith Basin, Madison, Phillips, Ravalli, Silver Bow, Stillwater, Sweet Grass ,Treasure, Wheatland and Yellowstone counties as eligible contiguous counties.

The department in May declared Carter, Dawson, Phillips, Roosevelt, Valley, Custer, Fallon, Prairie, Sheridan, Wibaux, Daniels, McCone and Richland counties as primary disaster area counties and Blaine, Garfield, Powder River, Fergus, Petroleum and Rosebud counties were declared eligible contiguous counties.

Gianforte, who declared a statewide drought emergency last week, praised the designation Tuesday but urged Vilsack to designate the entire state as in emergency status.

"I appreciate Secretary Vilsack responding to my request and designating additional Montana counties as natural disaster areas, but there's more USDA needs to do now to help our ag producers," Gianforte said in a release Tuesday. "With every region of the state facing severe to extreme drought conditions, I continue to call on USDA to declare the entire state a drought disaster area."

Gianforte's office said a declaration in Idaho also applied to some western Montana counties as contiguous counties. That declaration applied to Lincoln, Missoula, Sanders, Mineral and Ravalli counties.

The U.S. Drought Monitor's July 1 update lists most of the state in abnormally dry to extreme drought conditions. Only a pocket from western Chouteau County to parts of some counties across the Great Divide from Flathead to Granite and Ravalli are listed as no dry or drought conditions, and that region is ringed by abnormally dry to severe drought status.

Patches of extreme drought are listed on the eastern edge of the state and on the southwest tip and in a region including Valley, Phillips, Jordan, Winnett and Fergus counties.

Blaine County is listed as in severe drought and Hill, Liberty and most of Chouteau counties range from abnormally dry to moderate drought.

Vilsack's letter said the designation is made for counties that suffer from a drought intensity value during the growing season of severe drought for eight or more consecutive weeks or extreme or exceptional drought.

Vilsack wrote that agricultural operators in primary counties and counties contiguous to them eligible to be considered for certain assistance from the Farm Service Agency, provided eligibility requirements are met. The assistance includes FSA emergency loans.

Ag operators in eligible counties have eight months from the date of a secretarial disaster declaration to apply for emergency loans, Vilsack's letter said.

FSA considers each emergency loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of production losses on the farm and the security and repayment ability of the operator, the letter said, adding that local FSA offices can provide affected ag oeprators with more information.

 

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