Help Protect Land Conservation Program

Dear President Bush:

I strongly urge you to reject proposals to allow the penalty-free early release of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

A penalty-free early release of the magnitude your Secretary of Agriculture is reportedly considering - millions of acres - would deliver a devastating blow to the nation's soil, water, and wildlife habitat, and significantly increase global warming. The resulting damages could cost taxpayers substantially.

CRP is the oldest of the farm bill's voluntary conservation incentives programs, rewarding farmers who take fragile land out of production in exchange for rental payments and federal cost-share payments. Since its creation in 1985, CRP has been responsible for reducing hundreds of millions of tons of erosion each year, reducing pollution in our nation's waterways, providing important reservoirs for wildlife and has had significant benefits for populations of ducks, grassland birds, and other species. Allowing millions of acres out of CRP prior to the end of the contract period would quickly erase many of the gains that have been made with CRP and will likely create new problems.

Because most CRP lands are marginal for cropping, even if all CRP acres were brought back into commodity production, the impact on aggregate commodity supplies and prices would be modest. However, the impacts to soil, water, wildlife, the public, and the recreational industry that has developed around wildlife such as pheasants and waterfowl produced on these lands would be substantial.

I urge you to act to protect the environment and taxpayer investments in soil quality, water quality, and wildlife habitat. Please do not allow landowners to leave CRP contracts early without fully reimbursing the Treasury for the taxpayer-funded investment in those lands.

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