Lugar Makes Conservation Report Public

March 1, 2001

USDA, in a report distributed Wednesday at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing, said that conservation programs have been a big success, particularly the Conservation Reserve Program and the Wetland Reserve Program. "A decade ago there was a great concern in this country about the loss of wetlands. This USDA report shows that our agriculture programs have been the major reason this has turned around. It is a great environmental success story," committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN) said. "No other conservation effort in history has had the cumulative effect of the Conservation Reserve and other federal agricultural conservation programs."

According to the USDA report, "Trends in wetland conversion and conservation programs have helped agriculture become a net restorer of wetlands. The rate of wetland conversion in agriculture has dropped sharply in recent decades, reducing the overall rate of net wetland loss. Through the Wetland Reserve Program, agriculture has become the single largest source of U.S. wetland restoration."

The arresting of soil erosion has also been a major success. "Between 1982 and 1997, total erosion on U.S. crop land fell from 3.08 to 1.89 billion tons a year, a decline of roughly 1.2 billion tons/year or nearly 40%," says the report, "Agri-Environmental Policy at the Crossroads." "Conservation compliance is estimated to provide non-market benefits of $1.4 billion a year.

Erosion reductions by the CRP are estimated to provide $694 million a year in nonmarket benefits. These values include impact to water-based recreation, soil productivity, municipal and industrial uses, and household chores. This likely understates the true value of the reduced soil erosion because benefits associated with increases in waterfowl populations, improvements in coastal and estuarine recreation areas, increased likelihood of survival of endangered species, increases in marine fisheries' populations, and decreases in the cost that airborne soil imposes on industries, scenic views, and others have not been included," continued the study.

The report notes that conservation programs are significant to global climate change. Land in retirement programs increases the soil's carbon sequestration, which reduces atmospheric carbon loads. The report also highlights wildlife habitat improvement, reduction of chemical pollution and water quality improvements.

A full copy of the report is available on line at http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer794/.

The committee will look to the future of conservation programs today at a 9 a.m. hearing in room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building. Witnesses representing a broad range of agriculture and conservation organizations will testify.