Conservation program signup begins Monday

    A group of farm specialists and wildlife enthusiasts took a guided tour of CRP ground (Conservation Reserve Program) Thursday morning to learn how to maintain a healthy environment for humans and animals. Private lands wildlife technician Jason Gritsch of the Department of Natural Resouces (DNR) led the tour, which was on the Carol Flickinger farm two miles south of Washington. The farm contains examples of a dozen CRP practices using various flowers, grasses and maintenance methods.

    For the first time in four years, there will be a general signup for CRP beginning Monday and running through Aug. 27. Bill Bartenhagen, the Farm Service Agency director of Washington County, said CRP rates will increase substantially next year, although he doesn?t yet know how much.

    ?I want to say that overall, rates will increase about 10 percent,? said Bartenhagen. ?The CRP payments are based on soil type, which varies from county to county.?

     Gritsch explained that CRP has  three goals: to control soil erosion, to improve water quality and to create wildlife habitat. Gritsch focuses on the wildlife component, which requires the most work to maintain. He said improving the soil and water requires little more than planting grass on the land, but making the ground habitable for wildlife requires more intense management. He said that wildlife need to live in an ecologically diverse environment with a multitude of plant species. For that to happen, humans must disturb the ground periodically through burns. 

    ?We?re going to burn the wildflowers in the fall because it?s better for wildflower production. Fire is really good for prairie grass,? said Gritsch. ?Fire has really gotten rid of the weeds and it?s gotten the wildflowers to grow. It opens up the ground to allow the seed to germinate.?

    Gritsch said burns prevent a single species of plant from taking over an area of land.

    ?If the land is not disturbed, it will go to a monoculture ? just a single plant,? he said. ?We?re not looking for that on CRP land. We want diversity. We can?t just let nature take its course anymore.?

    Gritsch said when he started the test plots on the Flickinger farm three years ago, there was nothing but short brome grass on the property and very sparse wildlife.

    ?There was very little wildlife value out here,? he said. ?There wasn?t enough cover for them to hide from predators. There wasn?t enough nesting cover or winter cover. We?ve gone in and changed the cover type and quality to create better habitat by growing different grasses. We?ve done some strip discing and spraying to create annual weeds, the type of weeds we want out here, such as foxtails and ragweed. These types of weeds benefit quails, pheasants and songbirds.?

For more, see our July 29 print edition.