A recently completed study of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) has quantified and documented a number of environmental benefits of these two programs in the Prairie Pothole Region of the United States, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

Research scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Farm Services Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service evaluated a number of factors associated with lands enrolled in CRP and WRP at a number of sites in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, and North and South Dakota. These factors included the response of native plant communities, level of carbon sequestration, floodwater storage capability, reduction of sediment and nutrient loading to streams and quality of wildlife habitat.
No one familiar with CRP and WRP practices of the past decade will be surprised by the evident, environmentally beneficial results of the two programs, but little has been done to actually quantify and document them.

The researchers estimated that, to date, more than 23 million tons of soil have been saved from erosion in those sites as a result of the two programs. Nutrient loading in waterways is closely related to rates of erosion in watersheds. The scientists calculated that the programs reduced levels of phosphorous and nitrogen washed into adjacent waters by nearly 6,000 tons per year.
Regarding the ability and capacity of CRP and WRP to hold carbon in the soil and keep it out of the atmosphere, where it is one of the main drivers of global climate change, the researchers estimated that soil and particularly wetland basins of the Prairie Pothole Region sequester nearly a quarter million tons of carbon. Also, those basins have the potential to store nearly a half million acre-feet of water if filled to maximum capacity.

Furthermore, CRP and WRP were found to improve the quality and diversity of wetland and grassland plant communities.?
The full report can be viewed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1745/. (pmr)