Acres for USDA’s No.1 Wetlands Program in Jeopardy During Wetlands Month
WASHINGTON, May 22, 2006 – Despite President Bush’s request for full funding at 250,000 acres in the Wetlands Reserve Program, Congress is proposing to drastically cut the program to 144,776 acres.
“Decreasing funding to the Wetlands Reserve Program, which has a track record of success and broad support from both the American public and the Bush administration, is unacceptable to the hunting, fishing, and conservation community,” said Ducks Unlimited Executive Vice President Don Young. “The fish and wildlife resources about which we care greatly depend on wetlands, and at a time when the United States continues to annually lose an average of 80,000 acres of our best naturally occurring wetlands resources, it makes little sense to gut a cost-effective program with successful projects in all 50 states.”
Young says DU applauds Congressman Gil Gutknecht’s (Minn.) and Congressman Bennie Thompson’s (Miss.) decision to offer an amendment to restore the Wetlands Reserve Program funding to the level promised during the 2002 farm bill. If successful this amendment will certainly help waterfowl populations, as well as other wildlife.
“This increase in WRP acres is greatly needed, because the demand for this program is so strong among landowners. It’s also great for working farms and ranches, because it allows farmers to farm the best and conserve the rest,” said DU Director of Governmental Affairs Scott Sutherland.
The Wetlands Reserve Program is a voluntary program that compensates farmers for taking marginal, often flood-prone cropland out of production and provides technical and financial assistance to eligible landowners to restore, enhance and protect wetlands. Landowners can enroll eligible lands through permanent easements, 30-year easements or restoration cost-share agreements. This low-cost program allows landowners the opportunity to establish long-term conservation and wildlife habitat enhancement practices and protection on marginal flood-prone land.
DU has played a lead role in Washington, D.C., working with the administration and Congress to make sure that the conservation provisions of the Farm Bill, like WRP, are carried out.
“The introduction of the amendment is a good sign that Congress is responding to the concerns of the conservation community, as well as the needs of farmers,” said DU Governmental Affairs Representative Bart James. “WRP is a vital program to all DU members and is critical to our wetland and waterfowl conservation mission nationwide.”
It is imperative Congressional representatives are contacted and asked to vote "yes" on the Gutknecht/Thompson amendment to HR 5384 that would authorize up to 250,000 acres for FY 2007.
Click here to contact your Congressional representatives.
Contact: Barton C. James
(202) 577-3990
bjames@ducks.org
With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands - nature’s most productive ecosystem - and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year.