The Conservation Reserve, which pays landowners to idle fragile cropland, should be expanded to 40 million acres from its current 24 million acres, said Pheasants Forever, a hunting and wildlife habitat group, at the first congressional subcommittee hearing for the 2018 farm bill. Land stewardship and farm groups urged larger funding for two USDA programs aimed at working lands.
“Demands on our landscape and our natural resources are greater than ever, so we recommend that Congress seriously look at not only maintaining funding for the conservation title, but we strongly recommend increasing it,” said the National Association of Conservation Districts at a House Agriculture subcommittee hearing. Conservation funding was cut by 10 percent by the 2014 farm law “and it continues to be cut annually in the appropriations process.”
The witnesses and subcommittee chairman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma said the long-standing approach of voluntary participation by farmers and ranchers in cost-sharing programs worked best. Skeptics such as the Environmental Working Group say the voluntary programs result in scattershot activities with little lasting or overall value to taxpayers.
Enrollment in the Conservation Reserve peaked at 36.7 million acres in 2007 but was capped at 24 million acres in the 2014 farm law as a cost-saving step. Dave Nomsen of Pheasants Forever said populations of pheasant, quail and upland birds benefited from the large reserve. ““Whether measured by success afield by hunters, water quality improved for all, or economical support of rural communities, a robust CRP program of 40 million acres is both needed and sought after across the country,” said Nomsen.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and USA Rice Federation said the Environmental Quality Incentive Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program were the work horses of USDA stewardship programs. EQIP shares the cost of reducing runoff from farms and feedlots; CSP provides green payments to producers who make land, water and wildlife conservation part of their daily operations.
To reach testimony by the witnesses and statements by committee leaders or to watch a video of the hearing, click here.