Hunters and anglers, are you awake out there?
Conservation Reserve Program lands melting away
By Gregg PattersonThe call for conservation is more urgent now than ever. Hunters and anglers had better wake up. Or they won't know what hit them as wildlife populations plummet, due to weak farm bill conservation programs.
Known by the acronym CRP, the Conservation Reserve Program is the most prolific of the farm bill conservation programs. During the past 21 years, more than 40 million acres of highly erodible soils and marginal croplands were enrolled in 10- to 15-year contracts on private land.
More than 13 million pheasants and at least 2.1 million more ducks in the Prairie Pothole Region are produced annually on CRP lands. That's the equivalent of the total number of ducks hunters take annually in both Arkansas and Texas — or more ducks than are taken in the Atlantic Flyway annually.
A University of Missouri study also found that natural vegetation growing on CRP land "virtually eliminated" soil and nutrient run-off. This run-off is a major contributor to the oxygen depleted "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. So CRP benefits the Gulf Coast saltwater angler, too.
Phony ethanol demand is fueling the corn craze. Landowners are getting up to three times more in per acre rental payments to lease land for crops rather than what CRP pays. CRP land is being converted into cropland as I write this.
The extra ducks, pheasants and other wildlife it produces will disappear in the coming years.
What's needed?
The program should pay landowners a competitive price. Otherwise, they'll rent it for crop production. Congress should also recognize the Prairie Pothole Region as a priority area for this program as part of the farm bill.
Contact your senators now. Tell them to get a new farm bill passed with a strong Conservation Reserve Program.
Tell them to vote against any bill that tries to continue the present farm bill, which would do nothing for conservation programs needing new funding and authorization once the federal fiscal year ends on September 30.
Wake up. Or you'll be one disappointed hunter or angler in a few years.
To contact your U.S. senator, click here.
