Since 2006 we here at Center for Native Ecosystems have been dedicated to a new approach in endangered species conservation, reaching out to landowners, ranchers, farmers, agriculture groups, conservationists and other stakeholders on making the next Farm Bill (the single-largest source of conservation funding in the U.S.) work better for landowners and conservation. Since the majority of habitat for threatened and endangered species is on private land in the U.S., and a large proportion of private land in the U.S. being used to grow crops or forest products or to raise livestock, we felt this was an important approach we could no longer ignore.
From the start, we knew this was an ambitious task – the Farm Bill is one of the biggest and most entrenched bills Congress is tasked with taking up (every five years), and ranchers and farmers working together is a fairly new concept. But with help from our growing network of friends in the agriculture community, new alliances with national agriculture and conservation groups and continuous pressure on Colorado electeds (many serving on important Farm Bill committees and subcommittees), our goal was to take up a few priority items important to landowners and endangered species and see them through. In a number of ways we succeeded beyond our hopes (see Endangered Species Recovery Act below). We also had setbacks that will hopefully serve us in the future (see ‘Sodbuster,’ Wetlands Reserve Program and Conference Committee items below) – in advancing better conservation and climate change policy, advocating for endangered species, and more effectively building relationships between agriculture and conservation communities. In the end, most national conservation groups opposed the final Farm Bill, due to the many changes that happened behind closed doors in Conference Committee, the Farm Bill’s potential to negatively impact climate change and provisions (due in large part to inflated corn and commodity prices exacerbated by federal subsidies for corn ethanol production), that promise to open up vast tracks of native grasslands and prairies throughout the Midwest and West. To piece together the briefing report below, we borrowed heavily from two of our favorite Farm Bill partners, American Farmland Trust and Defenders of Wildlife.
Center for Native Ecosystems
BRIEFING REPORT
The 2008 Farm Bill: Good, the Bad and the Ugly
6/2/08
The Good
The Farm Bills conservation title includes increased funding for conservation programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Stewardship Program and Farm and Ranchland Protection Program.
The new Farm Bill includes the Endangered Species Recovery Act, which will provide tax deductions for private landowners that volunteer to conserve habitat on their lands for threatened and endangered species. Center for Native Ecosystems worked with our conservation and agriculture allies to improve ESRA and ensure its support by the Colorado delegation. Co-sponsoring ESRA in Colorado were Senators Salazar and Allard and Representatives Udall, DeGette, Perlmutter, Musgrave.
The Grassland Reserve and Wetlands Reserve programs have both been reauthorized. These programs conserving threatened ecosystems and wildlife habitat would have lost their funding under current law.
An illegal logging provision will limit unsustainable and illegal logging around the world, protecting forests and forest-dwelling species such as orangutans, while also benefiting domestic timber and paper industries.
The Bad
Enrollment for the Conservation Reserve Program will be reduced from 39.2 million acres to 32 million acres.
The Wetlands Reserve Program will be reduced by about 25% to just 185,000 acres per year.Cuts to the Conservation Reserve Program and the lack of a Sodsaver provision will likely result in the destruction of millions of acres of grasslands.
The Ugly
High commodity prices and federal subsidies for corn ethanol production have created intense pressure to plow under remaining native grasslands. Conversion of these lands to corn production not only destroys important imperiled habitats that are home to numerous declining species of birds and other wildlife, it also releases large quantities of carbon stored in grassland soils. A strong Sodsaver provision would have helped counteract these pressures by eliminating federal support and insurance payments on newly broken out land. Sodsaver provisions were included in both the House and Senate bills, as well as the Administrations farm bill proposal only to be taken out during Conference committee. Now producers in the prairie pothole region will be incentivized to break out their lands for fear their Governors will opt into this program. At least parts of the permanent disaster relief program will likely exacerbate the problem by guaranteeing producer income on even the most marginal of newly broken lands. Taken together with the bills significant retrenchment of the Conservation Reserve Program, the net effect will be to add to rather than ameliorate the pressure to plow under fragile native grasslandsdestroying habitat while contributing to climate change by releasing carbon stored in the soils.
The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, which formerly assisted a wide array of landowners in improving and restoring terrestrial and aquatic wildlife habitat, now limits eligible lands to owners of agricultural and private non-industrial forest lands. Important projects such as restoration of in-stream habitat and dam removal will apparently no longer be eligible, nor will projects involving the restoration of non-agricultural privately-owned lands. Further, the newly-added annual payment limitation of $50,000 will hamper the programs ability to address larger-scale habitat cost share projects. None of these changes appeared in either the House or Senate version of the bill or were ever given a public discussion during the farm bill renewal.
Not only will enrollment for the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) will be sharply reduced, but new restrictions will also be imposed on the length of ownership and payment schedules. This will hamper the programs ability to protect and restore large-scale wetlands. The Conference Committee also deleted language from WRP, approved by both the House and the Senate, to protect riparian areas. Riparian areas, which protect water quality, wildlife habitat and provide crucial habitat corridors, are threatened throughout the West.
2008 Farm Bill by the Numbers
Conservation Reserve Program
Reduces acreage cap to 32 million acres
Land enrolled in CREP and continuous enrollment elements of CRP can be exempted from acreage cap if the county government concurs
Adds Chesapeake Bay Region as priority area
Adds flooded farmland and aquaculture ponds to wetland pilot
Transition assistance to beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers
Restoration payments for WRP under a cost share agreement limited to $50,000 per yearWetlands Reserve Program
Lifts cap to be 3,041,200 acres [implies $1.3 billion in funding for enrolling added acres]
Establishes term for payment of WRP easements as follows:
o Valued at $500,000 or less from 1 to 30 annual payments
o Valued at more than $500,000 at least 5 and up to 30 annual payments
Allows for Secretarial waiver to allow lump sum payment where appropriate
Limits eligibility for WRP if land changed ownership in past 7 years
Restoration payments for WRP under a cost
share agreement limited to $50,000 per yearConservation Security Program
Restructures old CSP into new Conservation Stewardship Program including revisions of eligibility for land, producers, and practices
Adds $1.1 billion over baseline for the new CSP
Directs enrollment of 12,769,000 acres each fiscal year and requires CSP to be managed so as to cost, on average, $18 per acre
Funds existing CSP contracts through their full termsFarm and Ranchland Protection Program
Restructures program to emphasize use of longer term and renewable cooperative agreements
Establishes a certification process for eligible entities
Requires use of an impervious surface requirement in easements, with the eligible entity specifying the nature of the requirementGrasslands Reserve Program
Authorizes additional 1,220,000 acres to be enrolled during FY 2009-2012
Gives priority for enrollment to certain expiring CRP acres
Acreage translates to about $300 million over the four-year period
Significant revision of certain program provisionsEnvironmental Quality Incentives Program
Includes non-industrial private forest land as eligible and provides linkage with national organic program
Adds air quality, invasive species, pollinator habitat and animal carcass management to residue, nutrient, and residue management concerns
Retains the 60 percent requirement for funds devoted to livestock related conservation activities
Includes payments related to organic production practices
Revises process for evaluation of offers to improve effectiveness
Revises payment limit to be $300,000 instead of the current $450,000 during any six-year period, but provides authority for a waiver for projects of special environmental significanceConservation Innovative Grant program
Retains innovative approaches for the grant program
Adds a carve out for air quality amounting to $37.5 million annuallyAgriculture Water Enhancement Program
Replaces the Ground and Surface Water Conservation Program and focuses on water quality and quantity through partnership agreements arrived at through a competitive process
Provides total of $280 million through 2012 for AWEPWildlife Habitat Incentives Program
Changes limit program to agricultural land, non-industrial private forest land, and tribal lands
Changes landowners to be limited to owners of above types of land
Projects addressing State, national or regional conservation initiatives get priority
Limits payments to $50,000 per yearGrassroots Source Water Protection Program
Reauthorizes and adds funding of $20 million per yearVoluntary Public Access (Open Fields)
Establishes a grant program to enable states and tribes to encourage landowners to make land available to the public for wildlife dependent recreation
Provides $50 million for the program over a five year periodFunding [other funding covered under specific topics where applicable]
Budget Authority for FRPP totals $743 million over 5 years
EQIP funding rising from $1.2 billion in FY 2008 to $1.75 billion in 2012, totaling $7.325 billion
Continues funding for WHIP at $85 million per fiscal year
Raises amount for regional equity states to be $15 million per yearCooperative Conservation
Adds a cooperative conservation provisions to enable producers to come together with partners to leverage resources and better address common resource concerns
Covers all conservation programs except CRP, WRP, GRP, and FRPP. [Means it covers EQIP, CSP, WHIP, and some of the smaller programs like Chesapeake Bay]
Provides for use of 6 percent of program funds to be used for the cooperative conservation effortsOther
Requires USDA to report on program enrollments for contacts or easements above certain dollar limits
Strengthens technical assistance provisions with respect to use of third party providers, including multiyear agreements that are renewable and access to funding through the respective farm bill program
Provides for new authority for environmental services markets, including creation of a registry and a verification system for producers. Gives priority for protocols for participation in carbon markets
Establishes a program to enable experienced conservationists to assist with technical services to producers and other aspects of program delivery
Updates elements of State Technical Committees
Provides lump sum of $100 million for the Small Watershed Rehabilitation Program
Reauthorizes and updates the Resources Conservation Act of 1977
Revises parts of Resource Conservation and Development Program concerning planning process and technical assistance
Provides $175 million for the Desert Terminal Lakes program under the Interior DepartmentConservation Loan Guarantee Program
In credit title of conference report
Establishes loan guarantee program to assist producers in financing conservation systems
Gives priority to beginning and socially disadvantage producers, those converting to organic production systems, and producers applying systems to address compliance requirementsConservation Easement Tax Deduction
Extends the conservation easement tax deduction for donations from 12/31/07 until 12/31/09
Is effective retroactively to January 1, 2008
