Conservation Corner: May 3, 1999

Cochran Addresses Earth Day Celebration
by James L. Cummins

The day was April 22, 1999. The place was the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The occasion was Earth Day. One of the featured speakers was Mississippi's own, Senator Thad Cochran.

Cochran commended the group for coming together to promote conservation. He also commended the agricultural and conservation groups that were present for, not only recognizing the success stories that were being honored that day, but for playing major roles in developing state, regional and national programs to help advance a wide variety of conservation initiatives.

Mississippi's senior Senator also highlighted a conservation program that is putting Mississippi on the cutting edge of innovative approaches to conservation - the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program. WHIP, as it is commonly called, is a good example of the 1996 Farm Bill's effort to achieve more habitat with less dollars. With this concept in mind, the bill included a provision, which was authored by Cochran, to create incentives for landowners to voluntarily implement practices to improve wildlife habitat.

The goal of WHIP is to enhance and restore upland and wetland wildlife, threatened and endangered species, fisheries and other types of wildlife habitat. It is different than most programs because it places an emphasis on practices that are good for the environment and are compatible with agriculture.

In this time of decreasing funding, WHIP demonstrates to landowners that conservation-oriented agricultural practices can be coupled with wildlife management techniques in a cost effective manner and it means dollars for our nation's economy. It means jobs. It means a lot of things. It means good sense conservation.

A new Farm Bill is going to be written in the next several years, and it is going to require all of us to get together and try to sort out differences and exchange ideas on how we can use that opportunity to strengthen our federal conservation efforts. I am convinced that agriculture can "grow" in its compatibility with the environment. It has to be.

We may have to target the funds that are available to the most fragile and the most environmentally important resources, and that is going to be a challenge in terms of definition and selection. Both legislators and administrators are going to have to work together to come to an understanding about that.

Wildlife habitat is an important resource for the Nation. We must continue to find ways of creating incentives, in a cost-effective manner, for promoting sound agricultural practices that aid in the enhancement and restoration of wildlife habitat.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi.