[mou] CRP land in Minnesota: think grassland birds

[Jim Williams]

forward by
Jim Williams

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Paul J. Baicich" <paul.baicich at verizon.net>
Date: April 25, 2008 6:30:36 AM CDT
Subject: Fwd: MN - CRP

> High prices lure farmers from conservation program
> by Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio
> April 21, 2008
> Listen to feature audio
>
> Minnesota could soon lose up to 25 percent of the land currently  
> set aside
> in programs to protect water and wildlife. Thanks to government  
> subsidies
> for ethanol and high corn and soybean prices, farmers are turning  
> more land
> over to grains.
>
> St. Paul, Minn. — Conservation programs began during the farmm  
> crisis of the
> 1980s less as a way to protect the environment and more as a way to  
> get
> money into the rural economy.
>
> The federal Conservation Reserve Program pays farmers to take  
> marginal land
> out of production. Farmers sign a contract, promising not to plow  
> the land
> for 10 to 15 years. They plant native grasses, or allow trees to  
> grow up.
>
> About two million acres in Minnesota are managed for conservation.  
> But many
> of those contracts will expire in the next few years. As much as  
> 600,000
> acres could leave the conservation program and go back to cropland.
>
> Conservation improves water quality and provides habitat for  
> wildlife, says
> Kevin Lines, conservation easement manager for the Minnesota Board of
> Water and Soil Resources. Many projects restore wetlands.
>
> "A healthy wetland...removes nitrates, removes phosphorus, keeps  
> the water
> clean flowing into our lakes and rivers. These things provide the  
> public
> with a huge number of benefits that are difficult to put a cost on  
> or a
> benefit factor on."
>
> In the late 1990s, Minnesota used federal and state money to convert
> 100,000 acres in the Minnesota River watershed into conservation  
> land. The
> effect was to make the river a little cleaner by preventing  
> pesticides and
> fertilizer from running in.
>
> Back then, corn and soybean prices were low.
>
> By last June, Lines' goal was to add another 120,000 acres to the  
> reserve
> program. But farmers would only commit to 8,000 acres.
>
> Lines is frustrated, but he understands their decisions.
>
> "The landowner has to make a living today, they want to send their  
> kids to
> college tomorrow, so programs have to be competitive. We can't get all
> these public benefits from private landowners without some cost to
> society."
>
> It's not just grain prices going up; the value of land is  
> increasing. And
> farmers say the conservation programs don't offer them enough to  
> set their
> land aside.
>
> Two years ago Bill Grimm, who raises corn, soybeans and hogs in  
> Renville
> County in southwestern Minnesota, signed up to put about 30 acres of
> steeply rolling land into conservation reserve.
>
> But before he got around to planting the wild grass seed, things  
> changed.
>
> "During that winter of '06 and '07 the commodity prices  
> substantially went
> up, and being I hadn't seeded it yet, there was an option to opt  
> out, and I
> went ahead and did that. There was a small penalty I guess to do  
> that, but
> with the commodity prices, I figured I'd be better off farming it."
>
> Even with reduced yields during a dry year, Grimm made about $300  
> an acre
> profit after expenses. The conservation program would have paid  
> just over
> $100 an acre.
>
> Not everybody is opting out. Guste Blad, who farms in Renville and
> Kandiyohi Counties put about 100 acres of his 1000 acre operation in
> reserve. He likes having pheasants and deer around, and he likes  
> keeping
> his soil on the land and out of the drainage ditch. "And the  
> dollars -- it
> pays quite well for land that maybe isn't as good, up next to the  
> ditch
> bank is lot of clay, so the land isn't as productive as it would be  
> out in
> the middle of field. I think dollar for dollar it's a good  
> investment."
>
> Renville County is a top agricultural producer, and also has more  
> land in
> conservation than any other county.
>
> Tom Kalahar, with the Soil and Water Conservation District in Renville
> County, is worried that if Minnesota loses a lot of conservation  
> acres, the
> state could face a water quality disaster.
>
> "We bring all that marginal, fragile farm land back into crop  
> production,
> and corn crop production which is very agriculturally intense as  
> far as
> pesticides, and fertilizers, and erosion-prone, I mean that's why  
> it was in
> the program in the first place. We bring all that back into crop  
> production
> and we're going go backwards very, very, very fast."
>
> State officials estimate only a third of farmland along water  
> bodies is
> managed for conservation.
>
> That means there's a lot of potential to preserve sensitive lands. One
> federal agriculture official says those are the lands that newer
> conservation programs will target