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Ellsworth Air Force Base to downsize
• PIEDMONT, S.D. (AP) -- Ellsworth Air Force Base plans to downsize personnel this year as part of a nationwide shift in Air Force funding priorities.
• Col. Kevin Kennedy said Friday that a little more than 1,000 airmen have been given the opportunity to accept a cash payment and voluntarily separate from the 28th Bomb Wing.
• The Rapid City Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1dZ3vkC) that offers of voluntary separation or early retirement have been extended to airmen across the country. Personnel will have until the summer to decide whether to accept them.
• Kennedy said the total number the 28th Bomb Wing will lose will depend on how many airmen across the country accept offers.
• Ellsworth currently has 3,350 active duty personnel and 572 civilian employees.
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Conservationists claim victory on new farm bill
STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press
• MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Wildlife and environmental groups are claiming victory for conservation practices in the new farm bill, where two of their top priorities made it into law.
• Farmers will be required to use good conservation practices on highly erodible lands and protect wetlands to qualify for crop insurance subsidies. And the law requires "sodsaver" protections to discourage farmers from plowing up native grasslands in several Plains and Midwest states.
• From his vantage point on a wide expanse of South Dakota prairie, rancher Jim Faulstich hopes the legislation spurs more farmers to protect the natural resources on their land.
• Faulstich and his son-in-law manage about 8,000 acres near Highmore in central South Dakota, most of it restored and native grasslands on which they graze cows. They also grow a diverse rotation of crops. That habitat has proven so attractive to pheasants, trophy bucks and other wildlife populations that they launched a side business hosting hunters from across the country.
• "It's a very good investment of U.S. taxpayer dollars to encourage people to do good things on the land," Faulstich said.
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