The Crowing Post:  10/31/06


CRP Study Results Released

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and its Agriculture and Wildlife Working Group (AWWG) announced the results of a University of Tennessee study which indicates that planting land currently enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to commodity crops, including wheat, corn and soybeans, could cost taxpayers an additional $33 billion.

The study reveals that increasing the CRP enrollment to its current statutory cap of 39.2 million acres by 2015 raises net farm income by $600 million. The study also projected that raising the CRP cap and increasing enrollment to 45 million acres by 2015 would increase net farm income by $1.7 billion.

“The environmental and wildlife benefits of the CRP have been well-documented,” said Dave Nomsen, AWWG co-chair and Vice-President of Governmental Affairs at Pheasants Forever, “and the CRP contributes significantly to the $730 billion annual outdoor recreation economy.” He added, “This study points out that a CRP enrollment of 45 million acres would not only dramatically enhance the environment and wildlife habitat, but a CRP enrollment at this level also makes sound fiscal sense as well.”

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics:

  • More than $1.6 is billion paid in annual CRP rental payments to agricultural producers.

  • CRP reduces the annual cropland soil loss by about 450 million tons – enough to fill approximately 37.5 million dump trucks.

  • CRP restored 2 million acres of wetlands and adjacent buffers.

  • CRP protected 170 thousand miles of streams.

  • CRP sequesters 48 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

  • CRP produces 15 million pheasants annually.

  • CRP supports 2.2 million ducks per year in the Prairie Pothole Region.

Additional USDA statistics show the following economic benefits thanks to the CRP:

  • Soil productivity benefits - $162 million

  • Hunting migratory waterfowl - $122 million

  • Reducing runoff from fields - $392 million

  • Wildlife viewing - $629 million
      

        

 

 habitat today….pheasants forever!