The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Farm Service Agency (FSA) have recently approved an additional 45 wildlife-specific conservation projects on more than 250,000 acres under the new State Acres For Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) practice in the Farm Bill's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

Announced in late February, the second round of FSA-approved SAFE project proposals brings the total number of approved projects to 75. Submitted from 33 states, these projects address specific habitat-conservation needs of threatened and endangered, declining or economically valuable wildlife species on nearly half a million acres of private land throughout the United States.

"SAFE is unique in that its focus is more than just one species or habitat type," said Noe Marymor, Private Lands Wildlife Biologist for the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service. "The program was designed to target a whole list of sensitive and economically important wildlife species. It allows land enrollments that can range from small habitat buffers to parcels of hundreds of acres."

Introduced in March 2007, SAFE (also known as CP38) enables "local and regional conservation groups, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, biologists, farmers, ranchers and others" to submit proposals to the FSA that "help farmers and ranchers to develop and maintain high-value wildlife habitats" through the CRP. USDA set the enrollment goal for SAFE at 500,000 acres, with 50,000 acres held in reserve" to address [states'] requests for additional acres for at-risk species." With the recent addition of approved SAFE projects, USDA estimates the current allocation for the program to be 410,100 acres.

Aside from addressing high-priority wildlife species, SAFE offers an attractive incentive package for producers? ? 90-percent cost share on wildlife habitat management and restoration practices plus 50-percent cost share for mid-contract management practices required to maintain wildlife habitat during the life of the 10- to 15-year contract. To encourage program enrollment, SAFE offers an upfront $100 per acre incentive payment on top of the regular rental payments offered through the CRP.

While SAFE has elevated the importance of wildlife in CRP practices and has opened the doors for conservation of many imperiled wildlife species, biologists are concerned that enrollment in the program will suffer from continued increases in crop prices. "Although SAFE offers very attractive incentives for agricultural producers to enroll cropland, CRP rental payments just can't compete with current crop prices," said Marymor. According to experts, crop prices will have to drop significantly before SAFE and other CRP practices can achieve their potential.

Fortunately, the SAFE program has not come under fire in the long and ongoing series of debates between the House of Representatives and Senate on the new Farm Bill. FSA officials project that enrollment for SAFE proposals will begin in early spring.

View the most current USDA fact sheet on the SAFE program. (mcd)