Environmental Conservation

Natural wildlands are good at caring for themselves (as long as they’re protected from outside dangers such as pollution, human-caused wildfires, etc). Wind, rain, animal grazing, and other events help maintain a balance. In grasslands, for example, these natural disturbances remove excess woody vegetation and allow flowering plants to reseed and thrive.  While CRP aims to recreate natural habitat by establishing native CRP seed, it requires a more hands-on approach to stay on

Have you ever wished you could enjoy the environment-enriching benefits of CRP without taking entire fields out of active production? Then you might be interested in the new CP-43 – Prairie Strip practice.  CP-43 falls under CRP’s CLEAR initiative, which we talked about last week. Like all CLEAR practices, CP-43 places a special emphasis on reducing runoff and

There are three primary goals of the Conservation Reserve Program: improve soil health, protect water supplies, and restore wildlife habitat. While all practices under CRP work together to achieve these goals, many of them place a specific emphasis on a particular goal.  Last month, we discussed CRP SAFE, which focuses on establishing and restoring wildlife habitat.  Today, we’d like

At this very moment, the Mississippi River is pouring excess nitrogen and phosphorus into the Gulf of Mexico, feeding the 8th largest hypoxic zone in the world. Hypoxia is when a body of water lacks the oxygen necessary to sustain life. Any marine life in this dead area is forced to either flee or die.  Considering the prominent role the Gulf of Mexico plays for 5 US

Healthy soil is a critical component for life on this planet. Not only does it grow our plants and crops, but it absorbs rainfall, decomposes organisms and waste, and stores over 4 trillion tons of carbon. Forests, by comparison, only store around 360 billion tons (learn more about the importance of carbon sequestration here.)  Though soil is often viewed as an