HELENA, Mont. (NMB) – Governor Greg Gianforte is calling on Tom Vilsack, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, to identify all of Montana as a primary natural disaster area due to the ongoing drought.
Currently, only 16 of 56 counties in Montana have been given the designation.
Gianforte says the designation gives Montana communities the ability to access critical resources such as the Livestock Forage Program, Emergency Conservation Program, and Emergency Livestock Assistance Program.
He is also calling on Vilsack to allow for emergency haying and grazing on all of Montana’s participating Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acreage.
This comes after Gianforte declared a statewide drought emergency last week. As of June 22nd, around 91 percent of Montana faces conditions that range from abnormally dry to extreme drought.
