Farm Bill Conservation Programs

We conceptualized the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, which restored and enhanced nearly 7 million acres before it was merged into the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. Wildlife Mississippi continues to champion Wetlands Reserve, which has restored approximately 3 million acres of wetlands nationally, 1 million acres in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, and approximately 200,000 acres in Mississippi.

We worked with Congress to establish the Grassland Reserve Program; helped create continuous sign-ups for longleaf pine, native prairie, and bottomland hardwoods in the Conservation Reserve Program; and conceptualized and worked with Congress to develop legislation for the 2 million-acre Healthy Forests Reserve Program, a voluntary program to promote the recovery of threatened and endangered species.

Wildlife Mississippi also conceptualized the Endangered Species Recovery Program, which prevents species from becoming threatened or endangered, recovers listed species, and controls invasive species contributing to the decline of other species.

In response to Hurricane Katrina and other disasters, we conceptualized the Emergency Forest Restoration Program to help landowners who incur costs for restoring forests damaged by disasters. We worked to include provisions in the Farm Bill to assist private landowners in controlling invasive species.

Congress is working on a renewal of the Farm Bill and Wildlife Mississippi and other conservation organizations are heavily involved in that process. These programs provide technical and financial assistance to private landowners wanting to restore and maintain native habitats and the wildlife populations they support. Often, landowners apply for such assistance for economic reasons and to implement conservation practices.

For example, marginal farmland, such as land that floods frequently, can be taken out of agricultural production, placed under a Wetland Reserve Easement and reforested. Farm Bill conservation and forestry programs are administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency, and Forest Service, agencies of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.