After months of negotiations and several extensions of the 2002 legislation, Congress passed a new Farm Bill, the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008. The level of support?318 for and 106 against in the House of Representatives, and 81 for and 15 against in the Senate?is significant, in that there appears to be in each chamber sufficient votes to override a veto promised by the Administration, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

The new legislation includes increases for nutrition programs and an additional $4 billion for conservation. Most of the increase for conservation, $2.4 billion, is slated to go to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP, formerly titled the Conservation Security Program) also is proposed for expansion with an additional $1.1 billion. EQIP and CSP generally have not been as effective as some of the other Farm Bill conservation programs in the delivery of direct benefits to wildlife.

Among the more important Farm Bill programs, from a wildlife standpoint, is the Conservation Reserve Program, which was reauthorized but limited to 32 million acres, down from 39.2 million in the 2002 Farm Bill. Also, the Wetlands Reserve Program and the Grassland Reserve Program also were reauthorized but at spending levels lower than many in the conservation community had hoped. In addition, the new legislation creates tax incentives for landowners who deliver conservation addressing endangered species on their lands. It also provides incentives to encourage development of ethanol derived from cellulose-based feedstocks.

During the last days of negotiation, strong efforts were made to include language that would have substantially increased protection of native prairies. With prices of many crops currently at near-record levels, the temptation to convert native prairie to crop production has been too much to resist for many landowners. The recommended language would have precluded crop insurance or disaster payments on former prairie lands that were plowed and planted to crops. The "sodsaver" provisions in the final bill apply only to the prairie pothole region, and governors of those five states can opt out of the provisions.

The actual bill that Congress will send to President George W. Bush can be viewed at http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/Legislation/110/FB/Conf/Crland.pdf. (pmr)