‘Conservation’ Survives in the Conservation Reserve Program

News for Immediate Release
July 31, 2008
Contact: Geoff Mullins, gmullins@trcp.org, 202-654-4600

‘Conservation’ Survives in the Conservation Reserve Program

Coalition supports U.S. Department of Agriculture decision to uphold conservation contracts

WASHINGTON – A national sportsmen’s coalition today applauded the recent decision of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to uphold Conservation Reserve Program contracts and not allow landowners enrolled in the program to break those contracts without payment of the prescribed penalty for doing so. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership sees this as a win for conservation of fish and wildlife habitat, outdoor recreational opportunities, and other environmental and economic benefits.

“We are very pleased that the USDA has once again acknowledged the benefits of this country’s largest and most successful conservation program,” said TRCP President and CEO George Cooper. “At a time when market forces are making it tough for CRP to compete, this is the right decision to encourage landowners to keep their environmentally sensitive land in conservation.

“If early outs from CRP were allowed,” said TRCP Senior Vice President Tom Franklin, “it could lead to millions more acres of scarce fish and wildlife habitat being plowed under.”

CRP is a voluntary program in which landowners can enroll for a period of 10-15 years and receive annual payments in return for establishing approved ground cover beneficial to native wildlife populations. Through CRP, farmers and ranchers are making a real difference in the protection and enhancement of the environment by helping:

Restore 2 million acres of wetlands and adjacent buffers;
Restore more than 8 million acres of valuable grassland and forest habitats;
Reduce soil erosion by more than 40 percent;
Protect 170,000 miles of streams;
Sequester 48 million tons of carbon dioxide to help fight global warming;
Produce 13.5 million pheasants each year; and
Support 2.2 million ducks per year in the Prairie Pothole Region.

CRP also promotes underlying economic benefits. In 2006 alone, more than 87 million Americans enjoyed recreational activities related to fish and wildlife. As a result, sportsmen/-women and others injected about $120 billion into rural economies throughout the country.

In recent years, however, the high demand for other agricultural land uses and the accompanying higher monetary returns for such production has dwarfed the payment structure of CRP – making it difficult for the program to compete in today’s market.

“This program has too many important benefits to our society for us not to work toward modernizing the rental rates and making them more competitive in today’s marketplace,” said Geoff Mullins, Farm Policy Initiative Manager for TRCP. “The decision by USDA to uphold the terms of existing contracts is an important step in the right direction and hunters, anglers, and conservationists from all corners of this country look forward to working with policymakers to ensure CRP can move forward -- not backward.”

Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.

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