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Conservation Reserve Program turns 20
July 2006
Jim Low MDC
State and federal officials joined participating landowners in a celebration of conservation gains under this federal farm bill program.
JEFFERSON CITY-Officials from Washington, D.C., and Jefferson City converged on Marshall, Mo., June 28 to celebrate a birthday. The honoree was not a person, although it works on farms throughout the state. It was not a place, although it covers millions of acres. It was not even a thing, although the 70 or so people attending the event pointed to it and talked about it as if it had a physical presence. The object of veneration was an abbreviation - CRP.
The importance of the Conservation Reserve Program was evident from those who attended the event. Missouri Farm Service Agency (FSA) Executive Director Tim Kelley was master of ceremonies. Larry Adams, assistant deputy administrator for farm programs for the FSA, came to laud the program and see its effects in the Show-Me State. Missouri Conservation Commission Chairman Lowell Mohler was there. So were Conservation Department Director John Hoskins and Private Land Services Division Chief Steve Wilson. Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers came to add his voice to the chorus praising CRP, too.
The program's name is too bureaucratic to do anything but hint at its real nature. Adams described it as "one of the most significant conservation programs in history."
The basic facts of CRP make Adams's assertion hard to contest. Since its inception, the program has resulted in:
* 400 million tons of topsoil saved
* 50 million tons of atmospheric carbon tied up in vegetation each year, slowing global warming
* 36 million acres enrolled nationwide (8 percent of available cropland), with an average payment to landowners of $48.90 per acre
* 1.6 million acres enrolled in Missouri (7.5 percent of the state's cropland) on 22,000 farms, saving soil and enhancing wildlife
* $105 million in annual payments to Missouri farmers.
According to Adams, the seeds of CRP were sown in the 1950s, when the USDA realized the importance of soil conservation on private land. Congress translated that growing awareness into action with the Federal Food Security Act of 1985. Article XII of the act provided financial incentives for farmers to take cropland out of production. The program sought to reduce both soil erosion and farm commodity surpluses.
CRP succeeded at both goals. Missouri, whose annual losses to soil erosion were the second-largest in the nation, reaped enormous soil-conservation benefits. Wildlife conservationists hailed the program for the help it could give quail, pheasants and other grassland wildlife. It was a win-win situation where landowners got financial help they needed to control soil erosion and boost wildlife.
For a while, predictions of wildlife gains came true. Then, as grasslands established under CRP aged, the benefits slowly subsided. Wildlife biologists explained that habitat is not static. It changes with time, even without human intervention. If CRP was going to fulfill its wildlife conservation potential, it would have to be dynamic, too.
Working in partnership with state and federal farm and wildlife agencies, Congress added provisions that allow management of land set aside under CRP in ways that would maintain soil conservation while enhancing enrolled acres' usefulness to wildlife. The result was a bevy of conservation practices - CPs for short - that landowners could engage in without violating the terms of their CRP agreements. Many CPs came with further federal cash incentives to encourage landowners to use them.
The Conservation Department pitched in and offered its own incentives. It also put staff in the field to help landowners figure out which CPs would work on their land and how to implement them.
To illustrate the changes wrought by CRP and its brood of CPs, the FSA chose Saline County for the 20th birthday tour. They made the rounds of four farms where CRP is at work. At each of the sites, the landowner was on hand to explain how the program worked for him, for soil conservation and for wildlife.
The first stop was a 60-acre tract near Hardeman owned by David Cramer and Mike Gremaud. The two bought the land in 2002, hoping to transform it into a quail-hunting paradise. Most of the land had been used to grow corn and soybeans. That helped determine what CRP practices were available to Cramer and Gremaud. They chose to install filter strips (CP21), permanent plantings of native, warm-season grasses planted along stream edges. The practice helps stop soil particles, herbicides and other water pollutants in runoff water from reaching streams. They also planted grass on terraces (CP15) to slow runoff and provide additional nesting and escape cover for quail and other wildlife.
Within a year of making these changes, the number of quail coveys on Cramer and Gremaud's land quadrupled. The day of the CRP anniversary tour, visitors heard male bobwhites calling from the surrounding fields.
The second stop on the tour was 294 acres owned by Dan Dillon. He bought the land between 2002 and 2005 with the idea of creating wildlife habitat. Much of the land already was enrolled in CRP CP10, which involves cool-season grasses. He also signed up for the CRP-BOB program co-sponsored by the Conservation Department and the Missouri Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts. This program provides cost-sharing for some quail-friendly management not covered by CRP.
Dillon installed small food plots in the cool-season grasses and sowed legume seeds among the grass to provide better nutrition for wildlife. He planted shrubs to provide woody cover for quail, rabbits and other small animals. To enhance the value of this acreage to wildlife, Dillon took advantage of a CRP provision that allows landowners to disc or otherwise disturb dense stands of grass. This creates the bare ground and more open vegetation that quail need.
Stop three on the tour was Van Dorf Farm, a 1,100-acre production agriculture operation run by Larry Pointer. Most of the acreage produces corn and soybeans, but Pointer set aside 40 acres for CP22, a practice that encourages tree planting along stream corridors.
Pointer told visitors he was glad to get help planting thousands of green ash, sycamore, pin oak, burr oak, swamp white oak, hackberry and bald cypress trees in an area that often floods during the growing season. Before he planted trees there, the area was marginal at best for farming. CP22 addressed erosion problems in the creek bottom without reducing his farm income.
J.R. Wade and his grandson, Justin, hosted the final stop on the tour, a 3,000-acre production agriculture operation in the fabled duck-hunting area of Malta Bend. The senior Wade has been farming for more than 50 years. Justin joined him in 1996. Like Pointer, they grow corn and soybeans on most of their land, but they decided that the best use for 200 acres along a stream was to return it to its historic condition.
CP23 enabled the Wades to re-create wetlands. They used CP9 to create shallow-water habitat. Taking this flood-prone land along a stream out of production actually increased the farm's profitability by saving the cost of farming marginally productive acres. It also gave Justin a place to pursue his love of waterfowl hunting and created habitat for animals ranging from salamanders and furbearers to migratory songbirds.
In his remarks over a lunch of barbecued beef, Hoskins said the economic benefits of CRP have extended far beyond the program's original goals. He said quail and other wildlife help attract out-of-state hunters and anglers who spend $1.5 billion annually at Missouri businesses.
"The Conservation Department's partnership with the Farm Service Agency and the NRCS is putting CRP on the ground across the state," said Hoskins. He noted that over the last six years, the partnership has grown, and 60 Private Land Services Division staffers now have offices in USDA offices. "Technical assistance from Conservation Department specialists is now an important delivery contribution for CRP and other federal farm bill programs," said Hoskins.
FSA Director Kelley said soil is the foundation of Missouri's economy. "You and I know we are just caretakers of our land, and that is what CRP is about."
Jef Hodges, regional director for Quail Unlimited, noted that Missouri is one of six states that each received 20,000-acre CP33 allocations for upland bird habitat buffers. He said cooperation between the Conservation Department and the FSA has enabled Missouri to enroll 17,000 acres in this highly beneficial conservation practice.
"I can tell you from first-hand experience that CP33 projects around the state are working," said Hodges. "We have seen increases in quail numbers ranging from 100 percent to almost 400 percent around fields that have CP33 installed. We know the program works."
For more information about the Conservation Reserve Program and associated conservation practices, call the nearest office of the Farm Service Agency or the Conservation Department.
-Jim Low-
July 2006
Jim Low MDC
State and federal officials joined participating landowners in a celebration of conservation gains under this federal farm bill program.
JEFFERSON CITY-Officials from Washington, D.C., and Jefferson City converged on Marshall, Mo., June 28 to celebrate a birthday. The honoree was not a person, although it works on farms throughout the state. It was not a place, although it covers millions of acres. It was not even a thing, although the 70 or so people attending the event pointed to it and talked about it as if it had a physical presence. The object of veneration was an abbreviation - CRP.
The importance of the Conservation Reserve Program was evident from those who attended the event. Missouri Farm Service Agency (FSA) Executive Director Tim Kelley was master of ceremonies. Larry Adams, assistant deputy administrator for farm programs for the FSA, came to laud the program and see its effects in the Show-Me State. Missouri Conservation Commission Chairman Lowell Mohler was there. So were Conservation Department Director John Hoskins and Private Land Services Division Chief Steve Wilson. Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers came to add his voice to the chorus praising CRP, too.
The program's name is too bureaucratic to do anything but hint at its real nature. Adams described it as "one of the most significant conservation programs in history."
The basic facts of CRP make Adams's assertion hard to contest. Since its inception, the program has resulted in:
* 400 million tons of topsoil saved
* 50 million tons of atmospheric carbon tied up in vegetation each year, slowing global warming
* 36 million acres enrolled nationwide (8 percent of available cropland), with an average payment to landowners of $48.90 per acre
* 1.6 million acres enrolled in Missouri (7.5 percent of the state's cropland) on 22,000 farms, saving soil and enhancing wildlife
* $105 million in annual payments to Missouri farmers.
According to Adams, the seeds of CRP were sown in the 1950s, when the USDA realized the importance of soil conservation on private land. Congress translated that growing awareness into action with the Federal Food Security Act of 1985. Article XII of the act provided financial incentives for farmers to take cropland out of production. The program sought to reduce both soil erosion and farm commodity surpluses.
CRP succeeded at both goals. Missouri, whose annual losses to soil erosion were the second-largest in the nation, reaped enormous soil-conservation benefits. Wildlife conservationists hailed the program for the help it could give quail, pheasants and other grassland wildlife. It was a win-win situation where landowners got financial help they needed to control soil erosion and boost wildlife.
For a while, predictions of wildlife gains came true. Then, as grasslands established under CRP aged, the benefits slowly subsided. Wildlife biologists explained that habitat is not static. It changes with time, even without human intervention. If CRP was going to fulfill its wildlife conservation potential, it would have to be dynamic, too.
Working in partnership with state and federal farm and wildlife agencies, Congress added provisions that allow management of land set aside under CRP in ways that would maintain soil conservation while enhancing enrolled acres' usefulness to wildlife. The result was a bevy of conservation practices - CPs for short - that landowners could engage in without violating the terms of their CRP agreements. Many CPs came with further federal cash incentives to encourage landowners to use them.
The Conservation Department pitched in and offered its own incentives. It also put staff in the field to help landowners figure out which CPs would work on their land and how to implement them.
To illustrate the changes wrought by CRP and its brood of CPs, the FSA chose Saline County for the 20th birthday tour. They made the rounds of four farms where CRP is at work. At each of the sites, the landowner was on hand to explain how the program worked for him, for soil conservation and for wildlife.
The first stop was a 60-acre tract near Hardeman owned by David Cramer and Mike Gremaud. The two bought the land in 2002, hoping to transform it into a quail-hunting paradise. Most of the land had been used to grow corn and soybeans. That helped determine what CRP practices were available to Cramer and Gremaud. They chose to install filter strips (CP21), permanent plantings of native, warm-season grasses planted along stream edges. The practice helps stop soil particles, herbicides and other water pollutants in runoff water from reaching streams. They also planted grass on terraces (CP15) to slow runoff and provide additional nesting and escape cover for quail and other wildlife.
Within a year of making these changes, the number of quail coveys on Cramer and Gremaud's land quadrupled. The day of the CRP anniversary tour, visitors heard male bobwhites calling from the surrounding fields.
The second stop on the tour was 294 acres owned by Dan Dillon. He bought the land between 2002 and 2005 with the idea of creating wildlife habitat. Much of the land already was enrolled in CRP CP10, which involves cool-season grasses. He also signed up for the CRP-BOB program co-sponsored by the Conservation Department and the Missouri Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts. This program provides cost-sharing for some quail-friendly management not covered by CRP.
Dillon installed small food plots in the cool-season grasses and sowed legume seeds among the grass to provide better nutrition for wildlife. He planted shrubs to provide woody cover for quail, rabbits and other small animals. To enhance the value of this acreage to wildlife, Dillon took advantage of a CRP provision that allows landowners to disc or otherwise disturb dense stands of grass. This creates the bare ground and more open vegetation that quail need.
Stop three on the tour was Van Dorf Farm, a 1,100-acre production agriculture operation run by Larry Pointer. Most of the acreage produces corn and soybeans, but Pointer set aside 40 acres for CP22, a practice that encourages tree planting along stream corridors.
Pointer told visitors he was glad to get help planting thousands of green ash, sycamore, pin oak, burr oak, swamp white oak, hackberry and bald cypress trees in an area that often floods during the growing season. Before he planted trees there, the area was marginal at best for farming. CP22 addressed erosion problems in the creek bottom without reducing his farm income.
J.R. Wade and his grandson, Justin, hosted the final stop on the tour, a 3,000-acre production agriculture operation in the fabled duck-hunting area of Malta Bend. The senior Wade has been farming for more than 50 years. Justin joined him in 1996. Like Pointer, they grow corn and soybeans on most of their land, but they decided that the best use for 200 acres along a stream was to return it to its historic condition.
CP23 enabled the Wades to re-create wetlands. They used CP9 to create shallow-water habitat. Taking this flood-prone land along a stream out of production actually increased the farm's profitability by saving the cost of farming marginally productive acres. It also gave Justin a place to pursue his love of waterfowl hunting and created habitat for animals ranging from salamanders and furbearers to migratory songbirds.
In his remarks over a lunch of barbecued beef, Hoskins said the economic benefits of CRP have extended far beyond the program's original goals. He said quail and other wildlife help attract out-of-state hunters and anglers who spend $1.5 billion annually at Missouri businesses.
"The Conservation Department's partnership with the Farm Service Agency and the NRCS is putting CRP on the ground across the state," said Hoskins. He noted that over the last six years, the partnership has grown, and 60 Private Land Services Division staffers now have offices in USDA offices. "Technical assistance from Conservation Department specialists is now an important delivery contribution for CRP and other federal farm bill programs," said Hoskins.
FSA Director Kelley said soil is the foundation of Missouri's economy. "You and I know we are just caretakers of our land, and that is what CRP is about."
Jef Hodges, regional director for Quail Unlimited, noted that Missouri is one of six states that each received 20,000-acre CP33 allocations for upland bird habitat buffers. He said cooperation between the Conservation Department and the FSA has enabled Missouri to enroll 17,000 acres in this highly beneficial conservation practice.
"I can tell you from first-hand experience that CP33 projects around the state are working," said Hodges. "We have seen increases in quail numbers ranging from 100 percent to almost 400 percent around fields that have CP33 installed. We know the program works."
For more information about the Conservation Reserve Program and associated conservation practices, call the nearest office of the Farm Service Agency or the Conservation Department.
-Jim Low-
