Conservation Corner: September 3, 2001

Wetland Reserve Program Should Be Funded
by James L. Cummins

President George Bush signed the Wetlands Reserve Program (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. However, unless Congress funds this program this year, WRP will be "history".

WRP is administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Landowners who qualify 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 enrollment.

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

The Administration, which "zeroed" it out in the budget, should realize the cost savings associated with WRP. The program is good government at its finest. Land enrolled in WRP saves much taxpayer dollars. The government doesn't have to fund expensive disaster assistance programs and crop insurance programs on these acres, which has almost become an annual act and is often 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. It 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 have far more value than most marginal cropland in Mississippi. The same thing is happening 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 been considered.

Alternative uses of the land that will not only create employment for local citizens in the form of outfitters, guides and helpers, but the clients attracted to Mississippi would utilize hotels, restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, gift shops and a variety of other existing, and new, businesses.

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.