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Study highlights benefits of CRP, WRPSouth Dakota A recently completed study concluded that two U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation programs provide benefits on more than 5 million acres of wetlands and adjacent grassland habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region, Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer announced in October at the White House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy. "Voluntary conservation efforts have proven benefits for a vast region of significant wetland acres that provide excellent wildlife habitat and benefit local residents," Schafer said. The study quantified how the establishment and management of prairie wetlands and associated grasslands through the CRP and WRP have positively influenced ecosystem services in the following ways: --Improvement in sediment and nutrient control. Soil loss was reduced on 682,048 acres of upland CRP and WRP land by an estimated average of 1.9 million tons per year. If these annual soil loss reductions remain unchanged, it is estimated that more than 23 million tons of soil have been saved since the acres were enrolled in CRP and WRP. --Potential to intercept and store precipitation that would contribute to downstream flooding. Wetland catchments would intercept precipitation on approximately 1.1 million acres of CRP and WRP lands. --Improvement in wetland and upland plant community quality and richness. --Potential to sequester atmospheric carbon in soil and vegetation. Wetland catchments on CRP and WRP lands can potentially sequester an estimated 244,960 tons of soil organic carbon. Additionally, study researchers demonstrated an approach to measure the improvement in bird habitat through enrollment in CRP and WRP, the nation's most successful wetlands conservation programs administered on private agricultural land. The study is available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1745/. 11/17/08 Date: 12/4/08
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