Despite the loss of hundreds of thousands of acres from the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in recent years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is under continuing pressure to reduce penalties to agricultural producers who withdraw their lands from the program before their CRP contracts expire, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

In a recent news release, the Alliance for Agricultural Growth and Competitiveness (AAGC) urged USDA "to modify rules governing the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program to provide increased flexibility for producers to remove non-highly environmentally sensitive land prior to contract expiration when crop supply disruptions and growing market demand warrant." ?The release further stated "there is a pressing need to change rigid CRP rules that currently make it economically prohibitive for enrolled U.S. producers to respond to market conditions." ?Currently, producers who withdraw lands from the program prior to contract expiration must repay 100 percent of the rental payments they've received, plus interest. AAGC describes itself as "a consortium of national and state organizations, as well as private-sector companies, representing a broad cross-section of meat, livestock and poultry production; agricultural input; grain marketing, handling and processing; feed manufacturing; and exporting interests."

Easing contract-holders' ability to renege on their CRP commitment would not bode well for wildlife or conservation generally in many parts of the country, and particularly in the Upper Midwest. Even with the "restrictive" rules in place, the Dakotas and Montana lost more than 960,000 acres of grassland habitat in 2007 and another 335,000 acres in 2008 as a result of expiration of CRP contracts. During the next three years, contracts on an additional 3.4 million acres will expire in this same area.

While grassland habitat loss through expiration of CRP contracts is substantial in the Northern Great Plains, similar impacts are underway throughout the country's Corn Belt. Todd Bogenschutz, wildlife biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, reported that Iowa's CRP enrollment peaked at 2.2 million acres in the mid-1990s and, currently, "1.7 million acres are enrolled in the program." Bogenschutz further indicated that CRP contracts will expire on more than 530,000 acres in the state over the next three years.

For many years after the CRP was established in the 1985 Farm Bill, participation in the program was driven primarily by enrollment of whole fields through "general sign-ups." More recently, USDA began offering opportunities to retire smaller parcels of highly erodible crop lands through additional programs. Although these newer opportunities are a significant bolster of grassland habitat across the landscape, it is difficult for them collectively to match the wildlife benefits and sheer habitat acreage provided by whole-field enrollment through general sign-ups.

USDA presently is preparing a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on CRP and has indicated that a general sign-up for the program will not be held until that process is complete, which is expected to occur in the fall of 2010. (pmr)