CRP….. Where is it going?

Over the best several decades the CRP program has been a mainstay in habitat restoration and preservation in the entire United States but specifically in the Midwest. CRP which stands for conservation reserve program which is a program that pays farmers to not produce crops and plant the land back into native prairie grasses. This is very beneficial to upland game birds because it provides important cover habitat on the edges of agricultural fields. With the newest farm bill there has been lots of talk about reducing the amount of money allocated to the farm bill, they are also reducing the total number of acres that are allowed in the program.

This is significant because CRP plays a major role in both stationary and migratory game and non-game species. CRP is a major form of cover for nesting waterfowl and has played a major role in the increased populations in the past few years. I feel that with the resulting decline in CRP money this will send us wheeling back in the conservation department. The main supporting evidence of this is the success of waterfowl breeding in the U.S. pothole region compared to in Canada. In the U.S. with our CRP program the success of breeding pairs of waterfowl has dramatically increased over the years while in Canada which does not have an active CRP program breeding success rates has decreased at a steady rate over the years.

I feel that if something is not done now to combat this than we will see a dramatic decrease in wildlife production, and once this habitat is gone or developed it will be very hard if not impossible to get it back. We need to see an improvement now in our conservation programs and incentive based programs for both farmers and non-farming land owners or else there is no economic reason to continue with programs like CRP.