Report Finds Hidden Treasures in CSP

Three national conservation organizations recently released a joint report analyzing the wildlife benefits of the farm bill's Conservation Security Program. The report, Hidden Treasures: The Conservation Security Program and Wildlife, finds that the CSP provides: 1.) substantial wildlife benefits, 2.) that wildlife benefits vary considerably from state to state, and 3.) that with some changes in the next farm bill and in USDA's implementation of the program the CSP could provide even greater wildlife benefits.

The report's author, Duane Hovorka, will testify this morning before the Senate Agriculture Committee about the report's findings as part of an oversight hearing on working lands conservation programs. Hovorka is currently Farm Bill Outreach Coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation and is the former Executive Director of the Nebraska Wildlife Federation. The report was sponsored by NWF, the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and the Izaak Walton League of America.

Hovorka will urge the Committee to fully fund the program as part of the 2007 farm bill and to act even more immediately to ensure that farmers have the opportunity to enhance wildlife benefits. "CSP participants who enrolled in 2005 and have proposed to undertake major new conservation efforts through the contract modification process are awaiting the outcome of the long-term continuing resolution being debated by the new Congress, "according to Hovorka. "If the continuing resolution makes an adjustment and follows the President's proposal and the Senate bill, those new practices will go into effect. Otherwise, those farmers will have the opportunity snatched away from them."

The report's analysis of data provided by the US Department of Agriculture finds that roughly one-half of CSP payments in contracts signed by farmers during the 2006 CSP sign-up either support direct wildlife habitat benefits or pesticide use reduction practices that will likely benefit some wildlife. Wildlife habitat is one of eleven CSP resource management and payment categories and currently receives slightly less than 10 percent of total payments. However, direct wildlife benefits are also gained from certain practices that provide multiple benefits but fall under other resource concern categories, especially grazing, pest and nutrient management.

"Given USDA's decision to make soil and water quality the two national conservation requirements for the CSP and the Department's initial difficulty in creating uniformly strong wildlife benefit criteria for the program, there have perhaps been low expectations about the CSP's wildlife benefits," said Ferd Hoefner, policy director of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. "But our analysis reveals a very strong wildlife benefit response among participating farmers."

The report includes case studies of potential wildlife benefits provided by the Conservation Security Program in six states and the Chesapeake Bay region and a cursory review of wildlife benefits which may result from the 2006 CSP sign-up in other states. It finds that in some states, including California, Minnesota, Missouri and Texas, payments for direct wildlife benefits plus pesticide use reduction practices equaled or exceeded 80 percent of total payments. On the other hand, some states scored far lower on wildlife benefits. For example, in Nebraska, 26 percent of payments resulting from 2006 CSP contracts are for practices that provide wildlife habitat, or reduce pesticide use in ways that should benefit some wildlife. In other states not among our case studies, the percentage appeared to be lower still.

"More needs to be done to improve the wildlife performance of the CSP," said Julie Sibbing, Senior Program Manager for Agricultural Policy with the National Wildlife Federation. "A very good place to start would be for states with lower wildlife benefits scores to study what the high benefits states are doing and to adapt some of those strategies to their own situations. Congress can also help by requiring USDA to make wildlife more of a co-equal resource concern with soil and water."

The Conservation Security Program is a comprehensive stewardship incentives program created by Congress in the 2002 farm bill that provides financial and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers who develop and maintain conservation systems that solve critical natural resource and environmental concerns, rewarding them for investments of labor, management, and capital aimed at fostering healthy, productive, and non-eroding soils, clean air and water, energy savings, and wildlife habitat.

"The wildlife community should rally around the CSP as Congress takes up the new farm bill," said Brad Redlin, Director of Agricultural Programs for the Izaak Walton League of America. "Farmers clearly want a comprehensive conservation program that rewards them for meeting high standards and encourages them to go even further. The Izaak Walton League is ready to push Congress for greater and more reliable funding and to push USDA to continue to improve wildlife standards and involve more wildlife professionals in program delivery."

Among other policy recommendations, the report urges Congress to substantially increase funding for CSP so that farmers and ranchers nationwide can participate, and also to direct USDA to provide cost-share for new practices under the CSP and do so at the same rate as provided other USDA programs. The report urges the USDA to expand the number and variety of wildlife conservation practices available in each watershed and provide for the involvement of wildlife agencies and organizations with landowners contemplating CSP enrollment early in the CSP process.

In developing the analysis, Hovorka interviewed state fish and wildlife agency employees, non-profit wildlife and agricultural organizations, local US Department of Agriculture employees, and others with on-the-ground experience with the Conservation Security Program in their state. The USDA also provided the three organizations with more detailed information than was previously available about contracts that resulted from the 2006 Conservation Security Program signup.

The National Wildlife Federation was founded in 1936 as the national voice of state and local conservation groups, and has since emerged as the nation's foremost grassroots conservation organization.

The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition represents grassroots farm, rural, and conservation organizations from across the country that advocate for public policies supporting the long?term economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources and rural communities.

For 85 years, the Izaak Walton League of America has supported strong federal conservation policies on private lands, especially agricultural lands, to protect America's hunting, fishing, and outdoor heritage.

A copy of the full report is available at www.msawg.org.

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Date: 1/26/07

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