The Conference Committee Farm Bill

Help Ensure that Important Habitats
on Rural & Agricultural Lands
are an Asset, not a Liability
for Private Landowners

Until now, most farm conservation programs have overlooked a major need on private agricultural land – incentives to retain existing plant and wildlife habitat.  The focus of many farm conservation programs has been on providing funds to restore damaged habitat.  Unfortunately, this has had an unintended consequence.  In several instances around the country, landowners have plowed up native grassland, and converted other habitats into cropland, in order to qualify for the restoration programs.

The current Farm Bill Offers 3 Opportunities to Change this:

YOUR SUPPORT IS NEED TO— 

1.   Ensure that Sec. 217 of the Senate Farm Bill (H.R. 2646-EAS) – especially subparagraphs (a), (d), (e) and (f) -- is RETAINED IN CONFERENCE COMMITTEE.  This section establishes a program for essential plant and animal habitat under the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP).  This program allows the Secretary of Agriculture to enter into agreements of 15 years, or longer, to provide payments to landowners who are willing to maintain, manage and, if necessary, improve existing habitats that support important plant and animal species.   

2.   Ensure that paragraph (g), Vegetative Cover, Haying and Grazing, in Sec. 212, Conservation Reserve Program, of the Senate Farm Bill (H.R. 2646-EAS) is RETAINED IN CONFERENCE COMMITTEE.  This provision corrects several problems with the Conservation Reserve Program that have prevented its full use in several states.  This provision will ensure that private landowners are encouraged – and rewarded – for maintaining land in uses that improve water quality and provide habitat for important plant and animal species.

3.   Make a minor change in the wording of one sentence in the Grassland Reserve Program (Sec. 219 of the Senate Farm Bill, H.R. 2646-EAS, and Sec. 255 of the House Farm Bill, H.R. 2646), to ensure that existing plant and wildlife habitats can be protected through the program, when theses habitats support important species, even if the current grasses and shrubs are not the original native species.  A purely technical interpretation of "natural grass and shrublands" or "natural grasslands," as described in the House and Senate versions of the Farm Bill, would probably disqualify many ranch operations in the U.S., even though many operations currently provide habitat for a large number of threatened and endangered species. This is because older grasses that had lower nutritional values have been replaced in many cases by newer, more nutritional grasses and legumes that now support large, very diverse populations of livestock, deer and other wildlife. The following change will ensure existing habitats can be protected: 

In Sec. 219 of the Senate Farm Bill, under (c) Eligible Lands, subparagraph (2), add the following underlined and highlighted text:

 `(2) land that--

`(A) is located in an area that has been historically dominated by natural grassland; and

`(B) has potential to serve as habitat for animal or plant populations of significant ecological value if the land is retained in its current grassland use or is retained in or restored to a natural condition; or’

Or in Sec. 255 of the House Farm Bill, under (c) Eligible Lands, subparagraph (2), add the following underlined and highlighted text:

`(2) land that--

`(A) is historically dominated by natural grass or shrubland; and

`(B) has potential to serve as habitat for animal or plant populations of significant ecological value if the land is retained in its natural condition or its current grassland use or is restored to natural grass or shrubland.

PLEASE CONTACT THE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS FROM YOUR STATE (view list) AND URGE THEM TO SUPPORT THESE THREE PROVISIONS.  THESE PROVISIONS WILL ENSURE THAT PRIVATE LANDOWNERS ARE REWARDED BY FARM PROGRAMS TO MAINTAIN LAND IN USES THAT PROVIDE HABITAT FOR IMPORTANT PLANT AND ANIMAL SPECIES. 

Your support of these three provisions is greatly appreciated.