Conservation Reserve Program A Practical Example of Adaptive Program Management

Please join Interior’s Office of Policy Analysis on January 11 for their monthly speaker series.  This month’s seminar will focus on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).  Congress established the CRP in 1985, to address large agricultural surpluses, mushrooming farm program budgets, and soil erosion.  Initially the CRP was administered to reduce surpluses and soil erosion, targeting marginal cropland with highly erodible soils, but it ended up doing much more.  The CRP quickly became the country’s largest conservation program.  Over time, the agricultural surpluses disappeared, and studies demonstrated that by integrating additional conservation practices, the CRP could provide additional benefits including improved water quality, enhanced wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, ground water recharge, and pollinator forage habitat.  This led Congress and the Administration to change CRP objectives, and created both opportunities and challenges for managing CRP.  Skip Hyberg will focus on the role of adaptive management in increasing the benefits generated by the CRP.

Skip Hyberg, Senior Advisor, Agricultural Economics and Natural Resources, USDA/Office of the Chief Scientist