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Threats such as conversion of agricultural and forest lands, invasive species, declining water resources and climate change impact farmers’ bottom lines. Funding through Farm Bill programs can help address these threats, as well as conserving important habitats and natural resources. The major conservation programs in the Farm Bill include:
Conservation Reserve Program
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is the federal government’s single largest environmental improvement program. CRP increases wildlife habitat, helps protect millions of acres of American topsoil from erosion and protects ground and surface water. Through CRP, farmers and ranchers receive funding for planting trees and grasses that improve soil and water quality and wildlife habitat, as well as protect highly erodible and environmentally sensitive lands.
Environmental Quality Incentives Program
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) provides educational, financial and technical assistance to agriculture producers who face soil, water, air and other natural resources threats on their land. EQIP encourages farmers to adopt conservation practices on their lands, such as the reduction of fertilizer and pesticide use.
Where we work: The Conservancy is working with farmers in Georgia’s lower Flint River Basin, using EQIP funding to implement efficient, cost-effective ways to irrigate crops while conserving water resources.
Grasslands Reserve Program
In 2002, the Conservancy successfully lobbied for the creation of the Grasslands Reserve Program to protect working grasslands from conversion to more intensive agriculture or development. GRP helps landowners and operators restore and protect grasslands, while still using the lands for grazing.
Temperate grasslands are the least protected and most altered major habitat type in the world. This change is most pronounced in the Great Plains region, where over 8.4 million acres of native grassland in nine states were converted to cropland from 1982 to 1997.
Wetlands Reserve Program
The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) restores and protects wetlands by maximizing wildlife habitat and wetland functions and values on every acre enrolled in the program. Farmers and ranchers receive funding through WRP for restoring wetlands that were previously drained or converted to agricultural uses.
Wetlands provide critically important habitat for a wide diversity of plants and animals. They also provide society with a number of valuable ecosystem services, including reducing the severity of floods, filtering sediment and chemicals from run-off, recharging ground water, and providing recreational opportunities. More than one-half of the nation’s original wetlands have been drained and converted to other uses.
Where we work: In Illinois, the Conservancy uses WRP funding to work with the Natural Resource Conservation Service to restore wetlands at the Emiquon Preserve, habitat that is critical to the health of the Illinois River.
Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program
The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) provides technical and financial assistance to landowners to create high quality wildlife habitats, such as wetlands, uplands, riparian zones and aquatic habitat. Emphasis is placed on habitat areas for wildlife species experiencing declining or significantly reduced populations; practices that are beneficial to fish and wildlife that may not otherwise be funded; and wildlife and fishery habitats identified by local and state partners and Native American tribes.
Where we work: In Arkansas’ Big Woods, Farm Bill programs such as WHIP and WRP bring public and private partners together to conserve lands for local communities and endangered species, including the rediscovered Ivory-billed woodpecker.
Farm Bill picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): ©Tim Lindenbaum/TNC (a family farm in Illinois); ©Tim Lindenbaum/TNC (A combine harvesting on a family farm, on the banks of the Mackinaw River, Illinois).
