USDA Opens New General Signup for Conservation Reserve Program

Photo by Dusan Smetana

The sportsmen’s community scored a victory in February as the Department of Agriculture opened a new general signup for the federal Conservation Reserve Program, one of the most proven and successful ways of implementing landscape-scale conservation on agricultural and private lands across the country.

Members of the TRCP Agriculture and Wildlife Working Group joined in praising news of the USDA announcement, which marks landowners’ first opportunity in a year to participate in the conservation program.

The CRP, now 25 years old, works by incentivizing farmers and ranchers to strategically plant ground cover that benefits soil, water and wildlife resources, consequently improving habitat for waterfowl, upland birds, wild turkeys and many other wildlife species. The CRP also helps improve fish habitat through the installation of riparian buffers and filter strips that function to reduce sediment and chemical runoff. Through the CRP, private landowners have restored more than 2 million acres of riparian buffers, and conserved more than 170,000 miles of streams.

“By facilitating public participation in the Conservation Reserve Program, the Agriculture Department is testifying to the value CRP brings to both citizens and natural resources,” said Jennifer Mock Schaeffer, Farm Bill coordinator for the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, a member of the AWWG. “As deliberations surrounding the 2012 Farm Bill continue, the significance of economically important programs like the CRP cannot be ignored.”

The CRP provides $1.8 billion annually to private landowners, thereby supporting local economies and sustaining jobs in rural communities across the country.

The TRCP AWWG, a coalition of representatives from the nation’s leading conservation and sportsman’s organizations, is focused on the critical process of advocating for and implementing key Farm Bill programs that benefit fish and wildlife and hunters and anglers.

Learn more about the Conservation Reserve Program.

Learn more about the TRCP’s work in support of private-lands conservation.