Conservation Reserve Program is the largest environmental program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with enrollment exceeding 34 million acres across all 50 states. In Iowa, over 1.9 million acres on 50,324 farms are in the CRP. Based on average rental payments, the CRP brings in almost $200 million per year to Iowa’s farm economy. Improvement in program performance is an enduring goal of CRP. For the past 9 years and continuing today, scientists from the Fort Collins Science Center (Colorado) have been working in partnership with the USDA Farm Service Agency to help improve the program by evaluating program performance both socially (how is it working for CRP contractees) and ecologically (how is wildlife habitat improved?). In June 2004, FORT and the FSA sponsored a national meeting for more than 200 participants and presenters to address and present research on these issues as well as future CRP directions. The proceedings, The Conservation Reserve Program: Planting for the Future, was published in 2006.
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
