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Hearing: CRP revival sought

A call to restore the Conservation Reserve Program to its glory days has come at the House Ag Committee subcommittee on conservation and forestry – the first to hold a 2018 Farm Bill hearing. Ranking House Ag chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota lamented how CRP acres had to be reduced in the last farm bill to protect the conservation baseline and help offset some of the cuts in the conservation title, “Given what’s going on around the country, I think it’s time for us to figure out how to get back to CRP in this farm bill.”

Dave Nomsen with Pheasants Forever says the CRP program was a bit of a train wreck after 2010. He says CRP acres are down more than 40 percent from 2007 in Northern Great Plains states including the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota.

“That grassland has left the landscape and pheasants and ground-nesting birds – obviously – grassland habitats are critical. Between that and then what happened with the 49th general sign-up results, we’re actually saying we are at a grassland conservation crisis in much of this country,” said Nomsen.

The cap was lowered on CRP in the 2014 Farm Bill when acres were already being lost because of high commodity prices.

Peterson says not only should the Conservation Reserve Program be fully funded, it should be simplified and reformed. Peterson says he will NOT support an increase in CRP acres without some changes.