Fall/Winter 2001

President's Message

President George Bush signed the Wetlands Reserve Program, often called WRP, into law in 1990 as part of the Farm Bill. Over the past 10 years it has become the most popular, cost effective and successful, voluntary, incentive-based conservation program in our nation's history.

WRP is administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Landowners who qualify for the program are compensated for the value of their land in exchange for wetland restoration. Enrolled lands are mostly marginal, high-risk, flood prone agricultural wetlands. Mississippi, which has restored over 100,000 acres of wetlands, ranks second in the nation in number of acres enrolled. The wetlands restored through WRP also trap sediment, preventing it from entering waterways and lessening water flows and degrading water quality.

Since three-fourths of the wetlands in the United States are controlled by private landowners, the funding of WRP is vitally important. There are more than 500,000 acres of unfunded applications from approximately 2,700 landowners.

There are many cost savings associated with WRP. On the acres in this program, the government doesn't have to fund expensive disaster assistance programs and crop insurance programs which are almost yearly acts and are sometimes abused.

Population is growing more slowly than food supply. With the current oversupply of commodities throughout the world, we have seen prices plummet and Congress spend billions in aid. This trend will get worse before it gets better. Europe will get its act together. Africa will soon harness the benefits of fertilizer, pesticides and plant breeding, further reducing prices.

Restored wetlands used for duck hunting and bird watching have far more value than most marginal cropland in Mississippi. There is a similar trend in Britain; much of the Scottish highlands is now more valuable for deer than for sheep. The "highest and best use" of this marginal land may actually be in the form of habitat for ducks and trophy deer, bottomland hardwoods for filtering the air or even in uses that have not yet been considered.

Alternative uses of the land that will create employment for local citizens in the form of outfitters, guides and helpers, while the clients attracted to Mississippi will utilize hotels, restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, gift shops and a variety of other existing and new businesses.

Leila Clark Wynn
President