CRP LOSSES - A LOOK AT THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS

Increasingly, important elements of the Farm Bill, such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), are having a hard time competing for real space with today's high commodity prices, especially with the increasing focus on corn-based ethanol.

Specifically, more than 2 million acres of land previously enrolled in CRP were converted to cropland in 2007, according to a recent analysis of federal figures. The losses, which carry serious implications for wildlife species dependent on that land, were most dramatic in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Those three states combined lost about 800,000 acres of CRP last year.

As a reminder to readers, CRP encourages farmers to convert highly erodible cropland, or other environmentally sensitive acreage, to grass. The annual rental payments are based on the agricultural rental value of the land, and are paid to the landowner under 10-to-15 year contracts. We have previously covered this issue in the E-bulletin, including last month when we reported on Farm Bill passage in the Senate and expectations for a Senate-House conference: http://www.refugenet.org/birding/janSBC08.html#TOC05 and at: http://www.steiner-birding.com/bulletin/jan08.html

Some trends are particularly disturbing. For example, in North Dakota, new federal figures have shown that about 420,000 acres of CRP were converted back to cropland in 2007. That adds up to more than 12 percent of all CRP acres in the state. As summarized by Ducks Unlimited (DU) staff in Bismarck, "It's as if someone plowed up a three-mile swath of wildlife habitat across North Dakota, from its southern border to Canada."

Extensive losses for 2007 were expected, but the released total is about double the acreage that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency (FSA) had originally predicted.

With CRP unable to compete with what producers can get by farming the land themselves or by renting the land for cropping, Jim Ringelman, DU's director of conservation programs in the Prairie Pothole Region, said that the country's new energy policy could wipe out billions of federal dollars invested in natural resources: "Conservation is in for a long swim against a strong current when trying to fight the tide of land rolling out of CRP."

The number of CRP acres going back into crop production is also a warning, supporting a strong "Sodsaver" provision in the Farm Bill. The loss of CRP acreage is an assault on waterfowl and grassland birds, and should be resisted by all bird conservationists. In addition, the next line of vulnerable land to lure exploitation is existing native prairie that simply cannot be replaced. A strong "Sodsaver" would help to save some of what 10,000-year-old native prairies still exist.

For more details, see: http://www.ducks.org/news/1456/DUsaysCRPlossesastou.html