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USDA to offer new general signup for CRP in 2010
By: Todd Burras, Outdoors Editor
Published: Saturday, February 27, 2010 6:12 PM CST
DES MOINES – U.S. Sec. of Ag. Tom Vilsack announced Saturday the
United States Department of Agriculture will soon offer a new
general signup for the Conservation Reserve Program for the first
time since 2006.
The announcement is welcome news to landowners, hunters and
conservationists.
Vilsack, a former two-term governor in Iowa, made the announcement
during Pheasants Forever’s three-day Pheasant Fest celebration at
the Iowa Events Center. Details of the new general signup, including
payment rates, will be forthcoming perhaps as soon as late spring or
early summer, Vilsack said.
Vilsack also said USDA will increase by 300,000 acres allotments for
three other popular federal conservation programs.
“This is part of the Obama administration’s recognition that hunting
and fishing are an important economic driver for rural America,”
Vilsack said.
Vilsack said conservation, wind energy and hunting and fishing can
be economic catalysts for revitalizing rural areas that have been
hurting for many decades. It can also be beneficial to the health
and well being of children by getting them outdoors more, he said.
Established in 1985, CRP offers landowners annual payments on 10- to
15-year contracts for establishing native grasses, shrubs, trees and
wetlands on their land. It’s widely credited with significantly
boosting pheasant and other wildlife populations, but it’s also
beneficial for sequestering carbon, recharging groundwater supplies,
protecting against soil erosion and limiting nitrogen and
phosphorous runoff into river, lakes and streams.
According to USDA, contracts holding 4.4 million acres of CRP are
set to expire around the country in September, and an additional 14.
2 million acres of CRP will expire between 2011 and 2013.
In the past three years, Iowa has lost nearly 400,000 acres of CRP.
There are currently 1.6 million acres under contract in Iowa, but
contracts holding 117,000 acres are set to expire this year and
nearly 500,000 more will come out between 2011 and 2013. The state
has seen its pheasant population plummet in recent years.
Acreage caps for the three continual signup programs that will be
expanded are as follows:
• Conservation Practice 33, or the “Upland Bird Habitat Buffers,”
will be increased by 100,000 acres, and will be distributed in the
Midwest and Southern states that are part of the native range for
bobwhite quail.
• Conservation Practice 37, or the “Duck Nesting Habitat
Initiative,” will be increased by 50,000 acres for states in the
Prairie Pothole Region with the majority of the allotment going to
North Dakota and South Dakota.
• Conservation Practice 38, or the State Acres for Wildlife
Enhancement (SAFE) program, will be increased by 150,000 acres and
spread out among numerous states, including Iowa. The practice
focuses on environmentally sensitive land and species that have seen
significant declines in recent years.
Todd Burras can be reached at (515) 663-6921 or [email protected].
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