The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced that it is launching a new initiative within the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to enroll a million acres of grassland and wetland habitats, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. With full enrollment, the initiative will secure 200,000 acres of wetlands, restore 700,000 acres of grasslands and create 100,000 acres of habitat for pollinators.

Currently there are about 30 million acres enrolled in CRP across the country. Contracts on about 6.5 million of those acres will expire on September 30. ?Many anticipate that with the current high crop prices, most of those 6.5 million acres will be converted back to crop production. It is hoped that the additional financial incentives, offered as part of the new initiative, will help offset some of those losses.

The new initiative will be targeted at the Prairie Pothole and the High Plains regions of the country where many of the expiring CRP acres are currently concentrated. Producers can enroll through a continuous sign-up format rather than general sign-up opportunities that are offered periodically.

In addition to the new initiative, USDA announced that it will conduct a general sign-up opportunity for CRP beginning on March 12 and ending on April 6.

CRP not only provides critical wildlife habitat. It helps control erosion and maintains higher water quality. "It is USDA's goal to ensure that we use CRP to address our most critical resource issues," said USDA's Michael Scuse. "CRP is an important program for protecting our most environmentally sensitive lands from erosion and sedimentation, and for ensuring the sustainability of our groundwater, lakes, rivers, ponds and streams. As always, we expect strong competition to enroll acres into CRP, and we urge interested producers to maximize their environmental benefits and to make cost-effective offers." USDA estimates that CRP keeps more than 100 million pounds of phosphorous and 600 million pounds of nitrogen out of our nation's lakes and streams.

Get more information on both the new CRP initiative and the CRP general sign-up opportunity. (pmr)