Recent articles in Ducks Unlimited magazine have lamented declining federal support for waterfowl habitat, which is predicted to only get worse with the passage of the new Farm Bill. Although the Bill “contains some positive elements,” one article states, “when evaluated in its entirety, it is a step backwards for waterfowl, grasslands, and wetlands. Key conservation programs were either reduced from previous levels or rendered ineffective by program rules.” For example, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which had been a major success, will be severely undermined by the bill. Landowners participating in the CRP program are paid by the Commodity Credit Corporation to leave all or part of their property unplowed, providing nesting areas for pheasants, ducks, and other species. The decision to reduce the current 39.2 million acres of CRP land by 18% was not made out of a dislike for ducks, however, but in response to rising global and domestic grain prices, and t...
Links to my writing, and archived content I wrote for sites that are now defunct, but not (necessarily) because of what I wrote.