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"The
future of wildlife in this country is inseparably tied to activities taking place on private lands. Agriculture is by far the dominant user of these lands with about 50 percent of the U.S. or 900 million acres managed as cropland, pastureland or rangeland."* ( In Texas, rural land ownership is approximately 144 million acres, representing 86 percent of the state.) According to Environmental Defense, historically the federal farm programs have worked against environmental goals. Most of the programs have been directd to the growth of animal feed grains, cotton and other commodity crops and the support payments have been tied to production.* In fiscal year 2000, thirty-two billion dollars was spent on the federal farm programs. In recent years, wildlife conservation organizations, including Environmental Defense, have been active in designing the Farm Bills' conservation programs so that they directly benefit wildlife habitat and environmental attributes on privately held agricultural lands.
It was in the 1990 Farm Bill that the consequences of agricultural practices on wildlife species, wildlife
habitat and biodiversity were fully recognized: Congress asserted that wildlife would have coequal status with soil and water conservation. Steadily the Farm Bill's conservation
programs have received increased funding.
In the 2002 Farm Bill, approximately $2 billion has been targeted for conservation programs. USDA's entire budget was approximately $74 billion. The following conservation programs were funded, all these programs are voluntary:
- Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) began in 1997. From that time to the end of fiscal year 2000, a total of
$591 million had been allocated nationally.
In the 2002 Farm Bill, $850 million has been allocated. The program provides financial and technical assistance to eligible farmers to implement structural or management conservation practices. The State Conservationists, along with other interests prioritize the type of conservation practices that will be eligible. In 2001, 3, 207 Texas landowners requested over $30 million in assistance. However, only $12,174,991 million was available to fund contracts for 1448 Texas landowners. Of that amount, $2,519,535 went to four statewide resource concerns and the remaining $9,655,456 was designated to 28 geographic areas. An additional $62,068 went to educational assistance programs to promote conservation efforts acrosss the state. * The resource concerns were identified as water quantity, as affected by brush encroachment, and the need for more effecient irrigation systems; water quality of streams, rivers and lakes; waste management systems for animal feeding operations; and soil erosion on cropland.
- Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), begun in 1994, provides financial and technical assistance to private landowerns to
restore and protect wetlands through permanent easements, 30 year conservation easements or restoration cost-share agreement. In the 2002 Farm Bill, $250 million has been allocated to the
program. As of 2002, there were 52 Texas projects enrolled in the program covering 43,475 acres. Thirty-nine of these projects have permanent conservation easements. Two areas of the state have been singled out for special emphasis: the Lower Rio Grande where coastal saltine wetlands are being
restored, and wetlands adjacent to the Red River in East Texas.*
- Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) provides cost share, per acre rental fees
and technical assistance to take land out of production and implement conservation practices to reduce soil erosion, improve water quality and wildlife habitat. For taking land out of production, Texas' landowners receive approximately $40 per acre per year. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) pays up to half the costs associated with the establishment of conservation practices, such as planting grass or trees. Texas landowerns received approximately $164 million in rental fees and approximately $100 million in cost sharing in return for taking 3.9 million acres out of production and converting that acreage to grass, legumes, and trees. Texas had more land in the program than any other state from 1986 until 1996. (This is expected due to the large amount of agricultural land in Texas) More than 80 percent of the CRP acreage in Texas, as well as 60 percent of the participating farmers, are in the High Plains and Rolling Plains regions. As of August 2002, Texas again led the nation in the amount of acreage in the CRP---4,037,445 acres in the CRP. In the 2002 Farm Bill, $2 billion has been allocated for the CRP.
- Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program is a voluntary land retirement program not unlike the Conservation Reserve
Program, however, it is designed to address specific agriculture-related environmental concerns of high priority. It is a cooperative program between federal and state governments.
Certain acreage out of the conservation reserve program will be set aside for CREP. Though there is no limit on funding, there is a acreage cap. As of 2002, Texas does not have any lands
enrolled in CREP.*
- Super Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, a new program included in the 2002 Farm Bill is known as the Partnership
and Cooperation progam is an expansion of the CREP program, but Super CREP enables state and local governments to coordinate resources and to use all USDA conservation programs to address
conservation problems.
- Conservation Security Program was authorized as a new program in the 2002 Farm Bill. The CSP was supported by advocates of sustainable agriculture. It provides payments to farmers for conservation practices. In the 2002 Farm Bill,$19 million has been allocated to the program.
- Farmland Protection Program has been established to protect prime farmland by providing funds to help purchase development rights to keep productive farmland in agriculturel uses. Because Texas does not have a Farmland Protection legislation, it has not been eligible for matching funds from the FPP. In the 2002 Farm Bill, $112 million has been allocated to the program.
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FYI
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The 2002 Farm Bill is estimated to cost $190 billion over 10 years.
Texas farmers are among the largest beneficiaries of the bill. They will receive $1.15 billion in support payments in 2002 and an average of $1
billion a year through 2007. American farmers get 20 percent of their income from federal subsidies; seventy percent of the subsidies are going to
10 percent of the largest producers--the country's richest producers.
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- Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) provides financial--cost share up to 100 percent-- and technical assistance
to protect fish and wildlife habitat on private lands. Since WHIP began, 32,801 acres of upland habitat; 600 acres of riparian
habitat; 1000 acres of theatened and endangered species habitat and 7 acres of wetlands in Texas have benefited. In 2001, USDA's
Natural Resource Conservation Service received 101 applications for WHIP but due to limited funds only 15 contracts worth $280, 184 were approved.* In the 2002 Farm Bill, $42 million has been allocated to the program.
The most complete study undertaken to date of the affect of the Farm
Bill's conservation programs on wildlife concluded that even if all the evidence was not in yet, " There is no question that these programs are
making a significant conribution[s] toward conservation of the nation's fish and wildlife resources." *
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