CRP General Sign-up on Horizon

CRP acres are critical to pheasant flushes like this one

If today’s blog headline grabbed you, then you are undoubtedly aware of the value CRP’s 32 million acres hold in providing habitat for a variety of wildlife species, protecting water quality, enhancing rural economies and creating access for many hunters.  Add CRP’s importance to the quickly approaching September 30^th deadline when more than 4.4 million acres of CRP are slated to expire, and the critical nature of our current situation begins to set in.  Consequently, I have been nervously watching for signs of progress leading to the much anticipated CRP sign-up announcement.  Thankfully, I’ve seen many of the signals I’ve been waiting for and the dominos appear to be falling in order. 

First, the official CRP Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS, required by law has been completed.  The EIS clears the way for a new CRP rule, which was a hurdle for the USDA prior to announcing any new general signup.  Second, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on June 10th that up to $2 billion in funding was being directed into future CRP sign-ups and various Conservation Reserve Enhancement Programs around the country.    The bottom line from this funding news is that we can now expect as many as 4 million acres being accepted during the general sign-up offering period.  Those 4 million acres would be nearly double what might have been taken in without the $2 billion funding announcement. 

We may not have official sign-up details at the moment, but both of these signals point toward CRP sign-up details coming soon.  Stay tuned!

Tags: Conservation Reserve Program, crp, Hunting, Pheasants, Tom Vilsack, U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, Vilsack

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 and is filed under Hunting, Outdoors, Pheasants, Pheasants Forever. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.