The 2018 Farm Bill contains many critical conservation programs, including CRP. Photo © Forrest Carpenter

President Donald Trump was expected to sign the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill today, according to news reports, providing a much-needed boost and security net for hunters, conservationists, farmers and ranchers.

Delta Waterfowl recently called the $867 billion bill, officially dubbed The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, “the culmination of incredible effort” by legislators, their staffs and constituent groups. The legislation pays for nutrition-support programs, includes support for farmers and ranchers, and is the No. 1 conservation funding mechanism for working farms and ranches in America. It contains many conservation initiatives important for waterfowl, other wildlife and outdoor recreation, including the Conservation Reserve Program, Conservation Technical Assistance, Sodsaver and Conservation Compliance, Regional Conservation Partnership Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, and Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentives Program.

“Farmers, ranchers and conservation interests need the certainty of a farm bill,” Dr. Frank Rohwer, president of Delta Waterfowl, said in a Dec. 11 press release. “We want to extend our gratitude to the conferees and their staffs for putting forth a bill that is good for farmers and makes important investments in conservation that will be good for ducks and duck hunters.”

Notably, according to a Dec. 19 Delta Waterfowl press release, the bill uses Delta Waterfowl’s Working Wetlands pilot program in North Dakota as a model. That establishes a voluntary, incentive-based conservation program to safeguard America’s most critical wetlands for breeding ducks.

“Our long-term goal for Delta’s Working Wetlands program has been achieved,” Dr. Scott Petrie, chief executive officer of Delta Waterfowl, said in the relase. “Working Wetlands demonstrated to Congress, biologists and the agriculture community that it’s an innovative conservation solution that works for farmers as well as ducks. This is a monumental victory for wetland conservation on the prairies, and also for ducks and duck hunters.”

Launched as a pilot program in 2015, Delta’s Working Wetlands has annually conserved 9,500 of North Dakota’s most vital temporary and seasonal wetlands — small, shallow ponds that provide essential invertebrates to nesting hens and ducklings, but that are also at highest risk of drainage. About 93,500 acres of these wetlands were lost from 1997 to 2009, and millions of wetland basins remain at risk within the U.S. prairie pothole region, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Working with agricultural and conservation leaders in the North Dakota, Delta designed Working Wetlands to provide fair compensation to farmers to conserve critical, duck-producing ponds. The program emphasizes voluntary incentives to conserve wetlands on private lands.

“Agricultural producers have embraced Working Wetlands because they recognized Delta’s desire to work with them,” John Devney, Delta’s senior vice president, who served as the primary architect of program, said in the Dec. 19 release. “Working Wetlands enjoyed broad support as a new tool to conserve wetlands because it provides real benefits for ducks and duck hunters. I applaud Congress for including it in the Farm Bill.”

Backed by the Farm Bill’s Environmental Quality Incentive Program, Delta’s Working Wetlands concept has the potential to conserve many wetlands on working croplands across the U.S. prairie pothole region.

“More than 90 percent of U.S. duck production occurs on private lands, most of which are working farms and ranches,” Petrie said in the release. “That’s what’s so exciting about an authorized Working Wetlands program — it’s a solution designed to conserve breeding duck habitat on a massive scale.”

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership said the 2018 bill contains full funding — about $5 billion — for conservation work. Under the legislation, CRP acreage will increase by about 3 million acres to a total of about 27 million total acres. The bill also boosts money dedicated to wildlife habitat practices under EQIP to 10 percent of the program’s total funds, up from 5 percent. In addition, it provides $10 million more for VPAHIP, which the TRCP called “a significant victory.”

The 2014 Farm Bill expired Sept. 30. On Dec. 10, members of the Farm Bill Conference Committee released the final conference report, which provided details of the 2018 bill. The U.S. Senate passed the legislation Dec. 11, and the U.S. House of Representatives approved it Dec. 12. Both votes showed strong bipartisan support. When approved, the 2018 bill will cover 2019 through 2023.

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