Low landowner payments derail key farm bill conservation program
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., March 15, 2007 - Arkansas duck hunters and farmers are losing a once robust wetlands conservation program. After conserving almost 200,000 acres of bottomland hardwood forests and wetlands critical to wintering waterfowl in the Natural State since 1992, the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) is near death in Arkansas and other southern states. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the federal agency that administers this farm bill conservation program, is getting few takers since the program’s appraisal valuation process changed in 2006.
These modifications lowered easement payment offers to landowners causing a drastic decline in acceptance rates. Since the modified appraisal process went into effect, WRP enrollment has dropped from an annual average of more than 16,000 acres to just 528 acres accepted by only three landowners in 2006.
Ken Babcock directs a 15-state conservation effort out of DU’s Southern Regional Office in Jackson, Miss. The DU motto during the crafting of the next federal farm bill is “Farm the best, conserve the rest.” WRP is a major farm bill conservation tool that allows farmers to do that.
“The future of wintering waterfowl habitat in the south depends on WRP paying farmers, ranchers and other landowners a fair price to restore inferior cropland back to the wetlands it once was. That has to be fixed in the 2007 farm bill,” Babcock said. “Waterfowl and Arkansas duck hunters are in big trouble if we lose this program. This federally funded program plays a critical role in helping DU accomplish our conservation mission through restoring wetlands and bottomland hardwood forests on private lands.”
The WRP is a voluntary program in the conservation provisions of the federal farm bill that provides landowners with technical assistance and financial incentives to convert flood-prone, marginal agricultural land to former wetland conditions and seasonally flooded forests. As wetland restoration experts, DU works with the NRCS and private landowners to implement the WRP. This program helps landowners protect soil and water resources, as well as establish long-term conservation of wildlife habitat.
WRP is vital to waterfowl habitat conservation in every flyway. These restored wetlands not only benefit wildlife but also improve water quality and reduce flooding potential. WRP in Arkansas and throughout the south provides important wintering and spring migration habitat for millions of waterfowl including mallards, wood ducks, gadwall and green-winged teal and provides places for thousands to hunt. Research shows that the availability of nutritious foods during winter and spring migration is directly related to the number of young produced that year for many species of birds. Further, impacts of WRP are often immediate, as restored wetlands provide waterfowl with habitat the next winter and into the future.
DU has partnered with NRCS to provide technical assistance to landowners on more than 100,000 acres during the 15-year-old program. However, if the appraisal valuation process isn’t changed to reflect current agricultural land values, this critical conservation program will go unused in Arkansas and the funds will be redirected to other states.
Despite the efforts of conservation organizations like Ducks Unlimited, state and federal wildlife agencies and countless private landowners, more than 80,000 wetland acres are still lost annually in the U.S. WRP, more than any other program, has the potential to help offset these losses. The reauthorization of the 2007 farm bill and WRP will be instrumental in achieving President Bush’s goal of restoring, creating, enhancing and protecting 3 million acres of wetlands by 2010.
WRP is one of Ducks Unlimited’s highest priorities for the 2007 farm bill. In addition to changes in the appraisal process, additional funding will be required to meet the full potential of farm bill conservation provisions and the needs of farmers and ranchers. DU seeks to maintain at least 250,000 acres in WRP annually. WRP will disappear in October 2007 unless the program is reauthorized in the new farm bill.
Contact: Jennifer Kross
601.206.5449
jkross@ducks.org
With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with almost 12 million acres conserved. 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.