Soil Conservation Rules Revamped

Inland Northwest landowners, who hope to keep more than 1 million acres of farmland enrolled in a federal conservation plan, face tough, new requirements that may make their property ineligible, the secretary of agriculture said Wednesday.

Dan Glickman said the U.S. Department of Agriculture will emphasize preservation of wetlands and wildlife habitat next year when it begins enrolling millions of acres under a revamped Conservation Reserve Program.

The popular $1.8 billion-per-year program pays farmers to idle their land for 10 years and protect the soil by planting prairie grass or other ground covers.

Farmers and environmentalists had urged the Clinton administration to keep the current program, with its 36 million acres of idled land. But grain exporters and livestock dealers argued that the United States was exporting its farm industry by conserving too much land and restraining grain production.

“We will not target productive cropland that can be farmed economically and without adverse environmental impact,” Glickman said. “This will free our best lands to meet growing world food demands.”

A quarter of the land in some Eastern Washington counties is enrolled in the old CRP program, which began in 1985. Most of the preserved land was extended into 1997 until the USDA completed its final rules on the new program.

The rules may cause a decline in CRP lands in the Northwest. Landlords west of Spokane typically do not have large concentrations of wetlands and wildlife habitat that would be eligible for the program. They’ll have to rely on a USDA determination that their land is vulnerable to serious wind and water erosion.

“We fully anticipate a lot of the land coming out of the program,” said Mike Sporcic, acting Adams County district conservationist.

CRP rules are subject to a 45-day comment period. The first sign-up would be in early 1997.

, DataTimes