ENVIRONMENTALLY-FOCUSED CONSERVATION RESERVE PROGRAM
                                              Release No. 0064.97

                                     Jim Petterson (202) 720-4623

USDA PREPARED TO IMPLEMENT NEW, ENVIRONMENTALLY-FOCUSED CONSERVATION RESERVE 
  PROGRAM

     WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 1997--The U.S. Department of Agriculture now is
prepared to implement the new, environmentally-focused Conservation Reserve
Program (CRP) that will provide immediate benefits to producers, ranchers
and taxpayers through reduced soil erosion, improved water quality and
expanded wildlife habitat, Dallas Smith, USDA Acting Under Secretary for
Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services today told a congressional
subcommittee.

     "Starting next Monday, the USDA county and state system, which so
successfully performed last summer in enrolling a record 1.7 million farms
in the new farm program, will once again meet the challenge of another major
sign-up," Smith said during testimony on the new CRP at a hearing of the
House Agriculture Committee Subcommittee on Forestry, Resource Conservation
and Research. 

     "It is critical that we move now to enroll land in the new CRP
program.  In just three months, we could double or triple the miles devoted
to filter strips and riparian buffers along streams and rivers to improve
water quality and wildlife habitat.  We will greatly increase the enrollment
of cropped wetlands and highly erodible lands, some of the nation's most
environmentally sensitive cropland."

     The CRP is an effective, voluntary approach to improving the nation's
natural resource base.  Landowners enter into contracts with USDA to place
erodible and other environmentally-sensitive cropland in long-term
conservation practices for 10-15 years.  In exchange, landowners receive
annual rental payments for the land and cost-share assistance for
establishing those practices.

     In his testimony, Smith highlighted some of the key roles the CRP will
play in meeting environmental goals in different regions of the country,
such as protecting salmon and trout habitat in the Pacific Northwest;
reducing sedimentation and agricultural run-off in the Chesapeake Bay
watershed; protecting millions of acres in the Midwest from wind and water
erosion; and improving wildlife habitat to bolster waterfowl and wildlife
populations in the prairie pothole region of the northern plains. 
     
     Smith also testified that USDA is poised to launch a major information
blitz to inform landowners and farm operators about the new CRP and their
opportunities to enroll land during the March 3-28 sign-up period, as well
as opportunities to enroll at any time lands with high environmental value
under the CRP's continuous sign-up provision.

     "We are very eager to move forward and enroll land under the new
contracts to set the stage for conservation in the 21st Century," Smith
said.  "The new CRP will provide wonderful conservation opportunities to
thousands of farmers and landowners who had land in the program before and
thousands more who have never enrolled land in the CRP.  Under the new CRP,
the taxpayers get a better deal and landowners and farmers have a potent,
flexible conservation tool."                  
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