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Conservation Reserve Program

Hi - Thought this might be of interest to you - P. Dines

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From: Joseph Makuch, INTERNET:jmakuch@nal.usda.gov
To: Patricia Dines, 73652,1202
To: enviro-news@nal.usda.gov
Date: Wed, Feb 26, 1997, 11:41 AM
Subject: Impementing the Conservation Reserve Program

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 14:05:11 -0800
Subject: http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/1997/02/0064

> ENVIRONMENTALLY-FOCUSED CONSERVATION RESERVE PROGRAM
>                                               Release No. 0064.97
> 
>                                      Jim Petterson (202) 720-4623
> 
> USDA PREPARED TO IMPLEMENT NEW, ENVIRONMENTALLY-FOCUSED CONSERVATION
RESERVE
>   PROGRAM
> 
>      WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 1997--The U.S. Department of Agriculture now is
> prepared to implement the new, environmentally-focused Conservation
Reserve
> Program (CRP) that will provide immediate benefits to producers, ranchers
> and taxpayers through reduced soil erosion, improved water quality and
> expanded wildlife habitat, Dallas Smith, USDA Acting Under Secretary for
> Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services today told a congressional
> subcommittee.
> 
>      "Starting next Monday, the USDA county and state system, which so
> successfully performed last summer in enrolling a record 1.7 million
farms
> in the new farm program, will once again meet the challenge of another
major
> sign-up," Smith said during testimony on the new CRP at a hearing of the
> House Agriculture Committee Subcommittee on Forestry, Resource
Conservation
> and Research.
> 
>      "It is critical that we move now to enroll land in the new CRP
> program.  In just three months, we could double or triple the miles
devoted
> to filter strips and riparian buffers along streams and rivers to improve
> water quality and wildlife habitat.  We will greatly increase the
enrollment
> of cropped wetlands and highly erodible lands, some of the nation's most
> environmentally sensitive cropland."
> 
>      The CRP is an effective, voluntary approach to improving the
nation's
> natural resource base.  Landowners enter into contracts with USDA to
place
> erodible and other environmentally-sensitive cropland in long-term
> conservation practices for 10-15 years.  In exchange, landowners receive
> annual rental payments for the land and cost-share assistance for
> establishing those practices.
> 
>      In his testimony, Smith highlighted some of the key roles the CRP
will
> play in meeting environmental goals in different regions of the country,
> such as protecting salmon and trout habitat in the Pacific Northwest;
> reducing sedimentation and agricultural run-off in the Chesapeake Bay
> watershed; protecting millions of acres in the Midwest from wind and
water
> erosion; and improving wildlife habitat to bolster waterfowl and wildlife
> populations in the prairie pothole region of the northern plains.
> 
>      Smith also testified that USDA is poised to launch a major
information
> blitz to inform landowners and farm operators about the new CRP and their
> opportunities to enroll land during the March 3-28 sign-up period, as
well
> as opportunities to enroll at any time lands with high environmental
value
> under the CRP's continuous sign-up provision.
> 
>      "We are very eager to move forward and enroll land under the new
> contracts to set the stage for conservation in the 21st Century," Smith
> said.  "The new CRP will provide wonderful conservation opportunities to
> thousands of farmers and landowners who had land in the program before
and
> thousands more who have never enrolled land in the CRP.  Under the new
CRP,
> the taxpayers get a better deal and landowners and farmers have a potent,
> flexible conservation tool."
>                                 #


http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/1997/02/0064