[music]
Easterwood: Some of this land is just suitable
for pasture land, and when they first came out here
and settled, they broke everything out,
therefore we had the dustbowl.
>>In the 30's our dirt left here
and ended up in the east coast...
O'Rourke: As farmers we started going fencerow
to fencerow and the habitat just went away,
and so did the pheasants. ...
Cawley: But farmers are, of course, good stewards
of the land, we care about it, we've owned it,
we've lived here for generations
and we want to do our part.
[music]
Block: The Conservation Reserve Program is
a major point of pride for me...
Vilsack: It gives farmers options to take land that is
environmentally sensitive, and put it into a program
that protects the land, that prevents soil erosion.
Wooden: And the wildlife nest in it and we like to
leave stuff there for them to have cover for the winter.
Nomsen: Pheasant hunting is actually a billion dollar
industry out there, so it's a tremendous
economic boost to rural America.
Johnson: I think the CRP program is one of the best
government programs that is out there, period.
[music]
THE CLICHÉ IS THAT BEHIND EVERY CLOUD
IS A SILVER LINING. IN THE SPRING OF 1935,
ONE OF MANY BLACK CLOUDS ROLLED OVER WASHINGTON, D.C.,
Bennett: These wind-eroded lands...
HUGH HAMMOND BENNETT, THE FATHER OF SOIL
CONSERVATION IN AMERICA, WAS TESTIFYING AT
THE MOMENT THE WINDOWS DARKENED.
HE SAID TO A CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE:
Douglas Helms: He said something like:
this is what I'm talking about.
There, gentlemen, goes a bit of Kansas.
And later on he would say that this had
"considerable educational effect."
And that would be the acceptance of the idea
that soil conservation was in the national interest.
And that the public, through the government,
could help pay for some of this.
REPAIR BEGAN WITH TECHNICAL HELP FROM
THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
AND AS FARMING TECHNIQUES CHANGED PRODUCTION RETURNED.
PRODUCTION, IN FACT, OUTPACED DEMAND,
AND SURPLUSES BECAME COMMONPLACE.
THE FIRST PROGRAM TO SLOW PRODUCTION TO IMPROVE
PRICES WAS THE SOIL BANK IN THE 1950'S AND 60'S.
FARMERS WERE PAID BY USDA TO IDLE THE LAND, TO REST THE SOIL.
BUT WITH TIME AND NEW TECHNOLOGY, THE PACE
PICKED UP AGAIN - AND CROP SURPLUSES RETURNED.
BY THE 1980s, LAWMAKERS WERE FACING
THE DUAL-PROBLEM OF LOW CROP PRICES CAUSED BY
OVERSUPPLY - AND PRESSURE FROM ENVIRONMENTALISTS.
THE 1985 FARM BILL INCLUDED A PROVISION
FOR AN OLD THEME, BUT A NEW SOLUTION:
THE CONSERVATION RESERVE PROGRAM, CRP.
Block: That's where I came up with the idea of
a conservation reserve that would take the fragile,
erosive land out of production and then we
can put the good land into production. I believed in it
from the beginning, and fought for it.
Reagan: It includes some very good conservation measures...
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN SIGNED THE FARM BILL ON
DECEMBER 23rd, 1985.
WITHIN MONTHS, THE FIRST ACRES WERE ENROLLED IN CRP.
Wooden: After the program CRP came out,
we found out that we could put it in there
and get a little money off it. And plus,
it's helped, kept the dust and dirt from blowing.
Easterwood: CRP is a very good program.
It's a stable economy for us as farmers.
If we have it in CRP we have something
to fall back on when we have crop failure.
And we do have crop failures because of
drought in this area.
Glickman: And I continue to believe that
one of the great strengths of the program was the bond,
the alliance that it built between the commodity
folks and the environmental and conservation folks.
Through the Conservation Reserve Program the government
puts its money where its mouth is by helping farmers
make their private lands a public asset.
And that bond has been important, politically,
during the next five or six farm bills.
TO MEASURE THE VALUE OF LAND FOR CONSERVATION GOALS,
USDA CREATED AN ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS INDEX.
THE EBI EVALUATES HOW ERODIBLE THE LAND MIGHT BE;
WHETHER IT WOULD CONTRIBUTE TO IMPROVED WILDLIFE HABITAT;
AND HOW IT WOULD IMPROVE WATER AND AIR QUALITY.
Metcalf: Some areas are planted into trees,
you have some areas planted to warm season grasses.
Both of those are very deep-rooted, you take
a lot of nutrients up with that type of vegetation.
Johnson: The filter strips were the most economical for us.
That's a CREP program now. It has taken out all those
wet areas, we're getting the payment,
we're getting all the conservation and the ecological
benefits from that and we're, you know,
now we've got more places for rabbits and deer to live in.
Cawley: The Chesapeake Bay has been declining over the years.
The CRP program is a cornerstone to us here in Maryland,
helping to save the bay.
[music]
PROTECTING IMPORTANT WATERWAYS SUCH AS CHESAPEAKE BAY AND
OTHERS IS AN IMPORTANT "SILVER LINING" OF CRP.
ANOTHER IS THE CREATION OF WILDLIFE HABITAT.
[wildlife calls & rifle shots]
Nomsen: It's as simple as: if you add grass,
you have pheasants. And pheasants and
other wildlife populations literally exploded when CRP
came on the landscape in 1985.
And in the fall, each year, you're going to see
rural communities where it's hard to find motel rooms,
the restaurants are full, the fields are full
during the day, and so it's a tremendous economic boost.
[music]
Tom Vilsack: This is a commitment that you have made
to conservation...
CRP is an extraordinary investment to make it easier
for land owners to do what's right for their land
and right for the environment and for wildlife.
Pierce: So I would suggest to anybody that's interested
in the program to come in and sit down and talk
with the Farm Service Agency and find out
how the program would fit into their operation
and certainly we are there to help them
any kind of way we can.
O'Rourke: If you've got something that's marginal
there's no sense just tearing it up every year
- give it back to the animals.
Put it in CRP and let it do some good.
[closing music]