POSITION 



101 



Clearly, the CRP has been valuable in protecting soil productivity, reducing sediment damage, 

 providing an emergency source of forage, reducing federal commodity program costs, and 

 stabilizing land prices. Stable land prices also helped to limit the federal costs of saving farm 

 credit institutions. The total value of such economic benenis are enormous. To dale, however, 

 those benefits have not been determined with any degree of precision or accuracy, and they 

 should be. 



After CRP contracts expire, a large portion of the enrolled acres are expected to revert to 

 cereal, row-crop, and forage production. The impacts on land rents and market prices for 

 commodities and livestock will likely be negative. Future use of CRP acres will depend upon 

 economics, first and foremost, along with a number of related factors. Those factors include 

 the compatibility of permanent vegetative cover with existing use of adjacent land, the type of 

 cover established on CRP acres, the desirability and cost of conversion from cereal-crop 

 production to grazing-based enterprises, the degree of isolation for various tracts, absentee^ 

 ownership, and even the potential for lease hunting in an area. 



Although it remains too early to predict accurately the economic and budgetary conditions 

 that will exist when the first CRP contracts begin to expire in 1995, farmers, ranchers, and 

 others have expressed real reasons for concern about the program's future generally and, 

 more specifically, about the natural resource implications and financial costs associated with 

 the possible return of many CRP acres to intensified uses. Among the acres enrolled in the 

 program is highly productive land on which soil erosion can be controlled relatively easily. 

 There is also environmentally sensitive land, including some restored wetlands and riparian 

 corridors. If returned to production, most CRP land would be subject to the federal conserva- 

 tion compliance policy, which requires the implementation of an approved conservation farm 

 plan by December 31. 1994, to maintain eligibility for federal farm program benefits. Effec- 

 tive enforcement of the conservation compliance policy will thus be necessary to maintain 

 acceptable levels of natural resource protection on those CRP acres returned to crop produc- 

 tion. 



Given experience with the CRP to date and looking ahead at how the program or a new 

 version of it can become an essential component of an integrated farm program that simulta- 

 neously meets the nation's needs for agricultural production, farm profitability, and environ- 

 mental protection, the Soil and Water Conservation Society adopts the following policy 

 position: 



• In general, the CRP has proved to be a popular and. in most cases, a sound natural resource 

 conservation program, and it needs to be extended, perhaps in modified form, well beyond the 

 present 10-year contract period. Moreover, it should become a conservation program, first and 

 foremost, not an agricultural commodity supply management program. To get the most 

 conservation "bang for the buck," acreage and payment adjustments must be based on a more 

 accurate assessment of the land's productive capability and environmental values. Natural 

 resource inventories that have been conducted in recent years can be used as a guide in 

 making such an assessment. 



• The permanent vegetative cover now established on the most highly erodible CRP acres, as 

 determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's soil erodibility index (El), should be 

 retained and maintained. Selected cropland acres that perform critical environmental func- 

 tions — riparian corridors, buffer strips along streams, habitats for threatened or endangered 

 wildlife species, and the like — should be given high priority for continued enrollment. Land 

 not now in the CRP that is recognized as environmentally critical should be targeted for future 

 enrollment. This includes cropland in landscape positions that are critical to managing 

 ovcriand stormfiow and to protecting the quality of surface water and groundwater resources 

 alike. Restored wetlands now enrolled in the CRP should be given special consideration for 

 federal purchase of a long-term or permanent easement under the Wetland Reserve Program 

 (WRP). 



