For immediate release

New initiative offers funding for sage grouse habitat
Expiring CRP acres targeted

SPOKANE, Wash. (March 15, 2010) – Washington’s agricultural producers with expiring Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres in sage grouse habitat areas, need not “grouse” about a lack of land treatment options, thanks to a new initiative from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

According to Acting Asst. State Conservationist Jeff Harlow, producers may be eligible to receive up to three years of rental payments for retaining sage grouse habitat on expiring CRP contracts.

The sign-up deadline for the program is April 23, 2010.

“Payments to producers will be based on forgone income as a result of leaving CRP land idle, and could be as high as $47 per acre,” Harlow said. “We’re really focusing on protecting the CRP acres that have become such critical habitat for sage grouse.”

In addition, Harlow said that additional practices to improve sage grouse habitat may be applied with funding through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) or the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), which typically pays up to 75 percent of the costs for those practices.

Such practices include: Retrofitting existing fences to increase their visibility and reduce sage-grouse mortality; installing escape ramps for wildlife in watering facilities; deferring grazing in nesting areas to increase residual cover and increase brood survival rates; and treating noxious or invasive weeds to improve range condition and sage-grouse habitat.
 
“As an added benefit,” Harlow said, “improving sage-grouse habitat will also promote overall grazing land health and the sustainability of an agricultural operation.”

The initiative is limited to sage grouse habitat areas of central and eastern Washington. For more information on this and other conservation opportunities, producers are urged to contact their USDA-NRCS Service Center Office.

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