The program consists of landowners, mostly farmers and ranchers, who voluntarily enroll eligible acreage in 10- to 15-year contracts with the USDA Farm Service Agency. Participants receive annual rental payments from the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corp. as compensation for planting appropriate vegetative cover to control soil erosion, improve water and air quality, and enhance wildlife habitat.
According to the USDA, in the 20 years since the program was created, soil erosion has been reduced by 450 million tons per year. CRP can be credited for a reduction in sediment and nutrient runoff into rivers and streams. The program has also been responsible for increased wildlife populations. Long-absent prairie chickens have reappeared in Texas and big game numbers are rising in Western United States. But if farmers allow CRP acreage to expire, previously protected wildlife habitat could be lost to the plow and some are concerned that that will have a negative effect on our nation’s wild bird and game populations.
The ‘Duck Factory’
One area that has specifically been impacted by CRP, and some believe stands to lose the most from an acreage reduction, is the Prairie Pothole Region of the Northern Plains.
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This 300,000-square-mile region encompasses a large portion of North Dakota, and parts of South Dakota and Montana. It is referred to by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the “duck factory” of North America. Approximately 7 million pairs of breeding ducks are supported annually by the Prairie Pothole Region. A 2007 study conducted by the FWS determined that CRP grassland in this area produces 2 million ducks each year. The study found this to be a 30 percent increase compared with expected duck production from the same area without CRP cover.
Of the 44 million acres of land in North Dakota, 3 million acres (mostly in the Prairie Pothole Region of the state) are currently enrolled in the CRP. According to Jim Jost, North Dakota’s FSA conservation coordinator, contracts for 400,000 acres of CRP land in North Dakota were not renewed at the end of the 2007 fiscal year last September. North Dakota led the nation in loss of CRP land in 2007, and South Dakota came in second with 300,000 acres in expired contracts. Lack of interest in the program can be attributed to high crop prices driven by crop disasters in some parts of the world, a growing demand for food worldwide and increased production of ethanol and other alternative fuels. “We’re having record-high commodity prices and it’s an economic decision made by the participants,” Jost says. “There are other economic options out there. Land values have gone up and rental rates have gone up. And our CRP rents … it’s difficult for us to keep up with those things.”
Cash rents for cropland have climbed steadily over the past few years and continue to rise as commodity prices increase across the board. Jost says CRP rental rates are reviewed annually but simply can’t compete with the high cash rents. “Our current national policy is that new CRP rents are based on the prior three years of cash rents paid by farm operators,” he says. “If we’re looking at the prior three years and we’re in a period of escalating rents—we can’t catch up.” CRP payments in North Dakota range from $18 per acre in Sioux County in the southwestern part of the state, to $93 per acre in Richland County in the southeastern Red River Valley region, Jost says. He’s quite sure landowners in Richland County can make three times that amount per acre by renting that land to an operator. “Whenever anyone considers enrollment into CRP, they’ve got to look at why they are doing it,” he says. “If they’re doing it as an economic alternative to cropping, it’s difficult for us to compete. But there are other reasons to enroll land in CRP. There are people who are interested in wildlife benefits. There are people who are interested in maybe taking some of their lesser-productive land out of production and putting it into CRP to reduce risk on that farm.”
This fall, 160,000 acres of CRP in North Dakota are scheduled to expire. Even if none of it is renewed, that wouldn’t be a significant drop in CRP acreage, Jost says. Total enrollment is down only 11 percent from the all-time high of 3.4 million acres registered in the state between 1997 and 2007, he adds.
The Lag Effect
Some wildlife enthusiasts may argue that there have been no real noticeable signs of CRP loss affecting habitat. Hunters have enjoyed record deer and pheasant harvests over the past few years, which may provide proof as to the abundance of wildlife. However, Scott McLeod, Great Plains regional biologist for Ducks Unlimited, says that those who think loss of CRP land in the Prairie Pothole Region is insignificant are just plain wrong. According to McLeod, deer and pheasant populations have been high in recent years due to mild winters and large areas of habitat. CRP land has just started to be converted to crop land in large acres, so it will take some time to realize its full effect. “Before CRP acres started expiring in 2007 we had about 8.4 million acres (in that region),” McLeod says. “We lost about 820,000 acres in 2007 alone and we expect to lose 5.6 million acres, two-thirds of the total acreage, by 2012. Loss of CRP acres equals a loss of nesting grounds for waterfowl, and we will begin to see the effects of that habitat loss this fall. Those acres that have been tilled up last fall and this spring won’t be available for nesting now. There will be a lag effect, but we’ll start to see it over time. Once we lose a lot of these acres, if we get a nasty winter, it’ll just start to take them out by the hundreds of thousands. There just won’t be cover for them to stay protected. Then we’ll start to see the same thing with the deer population.”
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