Make Plans for the 2014 Hunting Season This Monday

This coming Monday marks the first time since 2006 - 4 long years - that landowners across the country will have an open opportunity to get signed up for the program.

These days, barely a minute passes within the halls of Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever without some mention of the nation’s most successful conservation program – the Conservation Reserve Program or CRP.  The grassland habitat acres created by CRP make up the very heart and soul of Pheasants Forever’s mission. 

This coming Monday marks the first time since 2006 – 4 long years – that landowners across the country will have an open opportunity to get signed up for the program.  At Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever, this CRP signup has all the pomp, circumstance, stress, and celebration as a Leap Year Birthday. 

I can talk a hundred different key messages and angles around CRP.  Like Dustin Hoffman reading off phone numbers by memory, my fellow PF staffers and I have become the “Rain Men” of CRP knowledge:

• Wildlife Habitat Benefits
• Water Quality Improvements
• Soil Erosion Prevention
• Pheasant Reproduction
• Honey Bee & Pollinator Habitat
• Carbon Sequestration
• Rural Economic Impact
• Gulf of Mexico’s Eutrophication Zone
• Soil Rental Rates
• Waterfowl Production
• Hunter Access
• And On
• And  . . . on

The benefits are diverse and substantial, and the window of time for CRP opens on Monday, August 2nd and closes four short weeks later on Friday, August 27^th.  In this stitch in time, over 4 million acres of habitat may be created with the help of farmers, ranchers, and landowners interested in taking their toughest-to-farm acres and enrolling that land in CRP.  The decisions of landowners during four weeks next month will determine the success of your hunting seasons for the next 10 years. 

Do you have a son who’s turning 12 this year?  This CRP signup will help determine his prime hunting years. 

How about a pup that’s turning 3 years old?  This CRP signup will dictate the number of retrieves that pup will make during his/her lifetime.

What about yourself?  Are you set to retire and enter your golden years of bird hunting?  You guessed it; August’s CRP signup success will determine whether or not you should take up woodworking or buy a new over/under Beretta. 

The time to act is now.  Please pass the word along.  CRP is open for business beginning Monday. 

PASS IT ON.

Find your local USDA Service Center.

Tags: Conservation Reserve Program, crp, General Signup

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 and is filed under Conservation, Habitat, Hunting, Pheasants, Pheasants Forever. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.