Mormon pioneers once relied on seagulls to save them from crickets. Now a century and a half later, Utahns look to Washington for relief.

With Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, looking on, President Bush signed an agriculture appropriations bill this past week that includes more than $50 million for Utah projects. And there's at least $1 million in that pot for cricket control.

"I'm particularly pleased with the funding we were able to procure for Utah projects, particularly those at Utah State University, a pre-eminent agriculture institution," said Bennett, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, in a prepared statement.

Bennett, accused by some of loading up appropriations bills with pork projects for his home state, sees the funding in terms of economic investment.

"Each dollar spent on research helps America's agriculture industry become more efficient and productive," he said. "It's an important investment with a sizable return."

The spending bill includes a total of $5.5 million for cricket and grasshopper control, with at least $1 million earmarked for Utah.

Bush praised lawmakers' frugality, saying "The agriculture appropriations bill meets important priorities and holds spending below last year's level.

"This legislation is an important step forward in our efforts to rein in spending while maintaining our commitment to America's farmers and consumers," he added. "By pursuing pro-growth economic policies and restraining spending, we can stay on track to meet my goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009."

Among the USU projects funded by the agriculture bill:

• $900,000 to the Utah Botanical Center to address urban sprawl issues.

• $800,000 to study the impact of drought on agricultural waters.

• $1 million for an air quality research program to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural emissions measurements and to determine the environmental benefits of reduced emissions.

• $1.5 million to the Biotechnology and Genomics Research Center to discover how organisms interact with their environment by extracting information from existing genome sequences in plants, animals and microbes.

• $1.67 million for pollen research as it relates to higher crop yields.

• $200,000 for USU to build a dairy and train locals in Afghanistan and Pakistan in modern dairy practices.

• $3.53 million to study poisonous plants and their effect on agriculture.

• $1.5 million to the Jack Berryman Institute as part of a cooperative study with Mississippi State University to evaluate threats of wildlife disease.

Other Utah projects requested by Bennett include $20 million for an Environmental Quality Inventive Program, a cost-share program focused on conservation projects like drought relief and water quality. The voluntary program allows farmers and ranchers an opportunity to implement better management practices and address threats to soil, water, air and other related resources on their land.

The bill also includes funds for predator control, a water protection pilot gram related to animal wastes, improvements to the Washington Fields Canal, flood prevention in Emery County, a study into chronic wasting disease affecting Utah deer herds and a feasibility study regarding the construction of a new greenhouse and herbarium facility for biology and botanical studies at Utah Valley State College.

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E-mail: spang@desnews.com