Ease in, ease out

Pioneer Press Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:40:53 -0600
Thousands of Minn. conservation reserve acres set to lapse back to cropland

Almost a third of the two million acres of Minnesota wetland set aside in the Conservation Reserve Program could leave the program in the next two years and go back to cropland. The CRP contracts between the state and farmers are expiring, and with rising commodity prices farmers are finding they can make more by farming the lands. That's got some conservationists worried about the impact on the environment. "A healthy wetland ... removes nitrates, removes phosphorus, keeps the water clean flowing into our lakes and rivers," Kevin Lines, conservation easement manager for the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, told Minnesota Public Radio News. "These things provide the public with a huge number of benefits that are difficult to put a cost on or a benefit factor on." The conservation easements began during the farm crisis of the 1980s, less as a way to protect the environment and more as a way to get money into the rural economy. It pays farmers to take marginal land out of production, promising not to plow the land for 10 to 15 years. They plant native grasses or allow trees to grow up. Last June, Lines had a goal of adding another 120,000 acres to the program. But farmers would only commit to 8,000 acres. Lines said he's frustrated, but understands the economics involved. "The landowner has to make a living today, they want to send their kids to college tomorrow, so programs have to be competitive," Lines said. "We can't get all these public benefits from private landowners without some cost to society."

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