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Critical
Conservation Program Under Fire  The
future of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is in jeopardy
and needs your help! A recent proposal by the USDA would
eliminate enrollments into CRP for the next two years. This
comes at a time when over 4 million acres of CRP will be
expiring. This program has been vital to conserving waterfowl
breeding grounds in the Prairie Pothole Region of the Dakotas,
Iowa, Montana, and Minnesota by allowing farmers to convert
marginal cropland into grasslands vital as nesting habitat in
return for rental payments. In addition to the removal of the
CRP enrollment option for landowners, rental rates being offered
to landowners on current CRP lands have not kept pace with the
market values of their lands.CRP is a conservation tool that has been proven effective over the past 20 years, and should not be eliminated through discontinuing enrollments. Eliminating CRP enrollments would remove a stable source of income for farmers, one that is not affected by drought or poor market conditions. Further, without CRP, farmers would be forced to continue farming marginal, highly erodible cropland, further impacting the soil, air, and water quality on their lands and in areas downstream. Please take a few minutes to send a
brief message to the President, Vice-President, Secretary of
Agriculture, the Administrator of the Farm Service Agency, and
your Members of Congress to let them know your desire to change
the elimination of CRP enrollment and fix uncompetitive rental
rates. We appreciate you taking the time to address this
critical waterfowl issue. |