U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow says farmers interested in participating in a federal program to reduce pollution in Saginaw Bay have until July 22 to enroll. The Michigan Democrat said Tuesday that Saginaw Bay is one of three watersheds in the U.S. included in the preservation and conservation effort. It's part of President Barack Obama's America's Great Outdoors initiative and has $550,000 in funding.

Stabenow chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee. Her office says the effort "will improve the bay's water and habitat conditions by helping agricultural landowners and producers to implement critical conservation practices that prevent nutrients and sediment from reaching the bay's waters."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service is overseeing the effort. It held a public meeting in Bay City last month on the program. PD

—AP newswire report