[Pollinator] FYI-New Ag Secretary says farmers should be able to grow switchgrass on CRP Lands

[R. Thomas Van Arsdall]

FYI-Interesting development, but not surprising...would be big backward step
for pollinator habitat and pollinators.  RTVA

*****

AGRICULTURE: USDA chief proposes energy harvest on conservation land
(03/04/2008)

Allison Winter, Greenwire reporter
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said today that farmers should be allowed
to plant and harvest switchgrass on millions of acres set aside for
conservation -- a move that environmentalists say could undermine a program
that sets aside vital bird habitat.

The Conservation Reserve Program -- which environmentalists and hunting and
fishing groups call the "holy grail for wildlife" -- provides more than 34
million acres of habitat. The program requires landowners to follow strict
rules to idle the land and keep native grasses planted on it -- seldomly
harvesting or haying the grasses under a conservation plan.

But Schafer wants to see the program used for cellulosic energy development
as well. He told reporters at a renewable energy conference in Washington
today that it would be a "great idea" to harvest switchgrass as an energy
crop on Conservation Reserve Program land.

"It would only make sense to me that we should be allowing the planting of
switchgrass on CRP, it gives it a productive capacity ... that kind of
production should be taking place," Schafer said.

Julie Sibbing of the National Wildlife Federation said it would "completely
undermine the purposes of the program" to allow farmers to plant and harvest
switchgrass for energy development.

"CRP is the Holy Grail for fish and wildlife, and to turn it into a
production program overnight would not only tip over the grail, it would
turn it upside down," said Tim Zink of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation
Partnership.

Schafer is proposing to allow farmers to plant native grasses on the land
then permitting periodic harvests for energy use. The argument is that the
land should be able to have multiple uses, to help take the strain away from
the increasing demand for more farm production for ethanol and food.

But Sibbing and other environmentalists say that efficient energy production
-- even of cellulose crops -- cannot be compatible with wildlife goals and
USDA should look to different programs to support cellulosic ethanol.

The 20-year-old CRP program gives producers payments for 10-to-15 year
contracts to convert highly erodible cropland to grass. It is vital for
ducks and pheasants in the prairie pothole region and a favorite of
environmental and hunting groups alike. The Fish and Wildlife Service
credits CRP with helping to produce more than 2 million ducks a year.

But the program is facing a tight squeeze from biofuels. Farmers planted
crops on more than 2 million acres that were previously enrolled in the
program last year, and USDA expects another 2 million acres to drop out this
year. Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department has not conducted any new
signups for contiguous tracts of CRP land -- the large sections that
environmentalists say are most useful for wildlife.

"It seems like people are thinking we have to maximize production on every
inch of land, and if the plan is to have no wildlife that's fine," Sibbing
said.

R. Thomas (Tom) Van Arsdall, Public Affairs Representative for Coevolution
Institute/Pollinator Partnership/NAPPC
For More Information, http://www.pollinator.org 

Van Arsdall & Associates
P.O. Box 8512
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tom at vanarsdall.com