The USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) recently announced a new initiative aimed at bolstering duck production in the Prairie Pothole Region. The Duck Nesting Habitat Initiative (CP-37) has a target of 100,000 acres, including 40,000 acres slated for each of the Dakotas, 8,000 acres each in Montana and Minnesota and 4,000 acres in Iowa. CP-37, an adjunct of the Farm Bill's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), is projected to produce an additional 60,000 ducks annually, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

In order to qualify for enrollment and incentive payments, tracts must be (1) outside the 100-year floodplain, (2) capable of being restored to CRP wetland standards and (3) include an upland buffer to provide nesting habitat and protect water quality. In areas where nesting density of ducks is less than 25 pairs per square mile, ground can be enrolled in a ratio of 4:1 acres of upland to wetland. Where nesting pair density exceeds 25 per square mile, a 10:1 upland to wetland acreage is eligible. Cost-share for site development will be available through the USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation, along with annual rental payments on the lands enrolled in the CRP program.

Sign up for the CP-37 begins October 1, 2006, at FSA state and local offices. Enrollment will be done on a continuous basis until acreage objectives are met or until December 31, 2007, whichever occurs first.

The Prairie Pothole Joint Venture Management Board (PPJV)?a technical and management component of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan?and other conservation interests applaud this initiative. They also have suggested several enrollment criteria modifications that likely would substantially enhance landowner interest in the program. FSA has been asked to consider allowing small, shallow non-cropped wetlands, in addition to the currently eligible cropped wetlands, to be used to calculate the size of upland buffers in areas where duck nesting pairs exceed 25 per square mile. This is not meant to suggest that non-cropped wetland acres be eligible for enrollment, but that those acres might serve to increase the size of the adjacent upland buffers. It is felt that this criteria adjustment not only will encourage more whole-field enrollments, but improve duck nesting production and success.

Also recommended is that landowners who have CRP contracts expiring in 2007 be allowed to re-enroll these tracts in CP-37 if they meet program criteria. Most of these landowners already have been offered the opportunity to extend their current CRP contacts for a period of two to five years at current rates. This would provide the landowners the option of enrolling eligible ground in a new, full-term contract on sites that have been providing high-quality habitat and where there already has been an investment in grassland restoration.

FSA has promised to give the PPJV et al. suggestions fair consideration.

Currently, 2 million wetland and wetland buffer acres have been restored through CRP. Among other benefits, those acres produce an estimated 2.2 million ducks each year. Additional information on CP-37 is available at FSA offices or online at: www.fsa.usda.gov/pas/publications/facts/html/crpduck06.htm.