USDA Announces CRP Signup; Wildlife Options Enhance Chances of Acceptance

NASHVILLE --- Landowners choosing to plant crop fields to vegetation best suited for wildlife under 10 to 15 year contracts in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) can greatly increase their chances of having their offers accepted by choosing options that benefit wildlife.  

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that the CRP General Signup 39 is now underway thru August 27, 2010. The last CRP general signup was in 2006. In a general signup, an applicant’s offer competes with all other offers from across the country. If there are more acres offered than what USDA will accept (which is typically the case), then only offers with highest scores will be accepted. 

 

Contract offers are ranked on anticipated environmental benefits. Applicants choosing to plant a mixture of native grasses, wildflowers and shrubs and/or trees under the CP4D Permanent Wildlife Habitat will typically score high. Tracts to be established to the CP4D practice that are located in Wildlife Priority Zone counties get an extra 30 points, and can get another 30 points if the tract is also located in a Water Quality Priority Zone. Offers that will establish at least 10 percent of the tract in Pollinator Habitat (a light seeding of native grasses with lots of wildflowers, or use of flowering shrubs) and/or a Wildlife Food Plot will also garner extra ranking points.

If accepted in the CRP, the applicant will receive approximately 50 percent cost share reimbursement for cover establishment and conversion, and an annual payment based on established rates for the three predominant soil types of the land enrolled.

 

Landowners with expiring CRP grass contracts (whether introduced or native) can likewise upgrade the cover on their CRP land to receive extra ranking points on their Signup 39 reenrollment offers. For new CRP offers, there has been a change in cropping history years of eligibility, so land that was previously not eligible may now be. To be eligible, the land had to have been cropped at least four of the six years from 2002 to 2007. 

 

 Wildlife Priority Zone counties include Carroll, Crockett, Dyer, Gibson, Haywood, Obion, and Weakley in West Tennessee and Coffee, Franklin, Giles, Lawrence, Lincoln, Montgomery and Robertson in Middle Tennessee. Water Quality Priority Zones include the Obion, South Fork Obion, and Forked Deer watersheds in West Tennessee, and the Elk River and Red River watersheds in Middle Tennessee.

 

The CRP also has Continuous Signup practices that are open for enrollment at any time. The suite of practices in the Continuous Signup is typically small acreage, field border, or specialized wildlife or environmental practices. Land enrolled in these practices receives higher per-acre payments and incentives.

 

For more information, contact your local USDA Service Center or local Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Private Lands Biologist (contact information can be found at www.TWRAprivatelands.org), or call the TWRA Private Lands Section at (615) 781-6614 or (615) 781-6597.

---TWRA---