A rare coalition of grain processors, conservationists and clean-water groups asked the Agriculture Department to dedicate one-third of the Conservation Reserve to buffer strips, windbreaks and other practices that protect water quality and wildlife habitat. The 2014 farm law set an enrollment cap of 24 million acres for the Conservation Reserve, which pays landowners an annual rent for idling fragile land for 10 years or longer. In a letter, the 13 groups suggested that the USDA “set a robust target” for putting land under the continuous-enrollment provisions of the Reserve and the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. At present, a quarter of the land in the Reserve entered under those provisions, which improve water quality and wildlife habitat.
The groups urged the department to “reserve at least 800,000 acres annually and, over the long-term, at least 8 million acres in total for new enrollments and re-enrollments for all types of continuous enrollments.” That would amount to one-third of the maximum amount of land allowed in the Reserve. Agri-Pulse said, “That would limit the amount of larger tracts that could be taken out of production through periodic, general signups.” The USDA holds general signups from time to time, usually no more than once a year. As the name implies, the continuous-enrollment projects can be brought into the Reserve at any time.