Support for

conservation

is wise policy

 No comments  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

The new effort by Gov. Mike Johanns, Rep. Tom Osborne and Sen. Chuck Hagel to turn irrigated farmland into wildlife habitat is a welcome change from the status quo.

The move would help keep water flowing in the Republican and Platte rivers. Fields would be returned to more natural grasses and plants that offer more protection for wildlife.

The area covered includes Pumpkin Creek, which landowners said has been sucked dry by nearby irrigation wells.

The program would be a good alternative to traditional federal policy that subsidizes crop production in the drought-stricken counties in central and western Nebraska.

The state's application for participation in the relatively new federal program has gone to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. An answer may come as soon as Nov. 1.

If approved, it would be the first time in the nation that the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, established in 1997, would be used to conserve surface water.

The state's application could take as much as 100,000 acres out of irrigation at an estimated 10-year cost of $158 million.

Participation by landowners would be voluntary. There is considerable motivation, however, for farmers to consider the program.

Corn is shriveling in the fields between Alma and Trenton. "It looked like it went from 120 bushels (per acre) to 20 bushels," said Greg Reisdorff of the state Farm Service Agency office in Lincoln.

Normally the Frenchman-Cambridge Irrigation District provides water to about 450 farmers who irrigate 45,000 acres. This year only 100 farmers received water and only 17,000 acres were irrigated.

Irrigation in the Republican River and Platte River valley also is facing legal challenges. A settlement requires Nebraska to leave a certain amount of water in the Republican River for Kansas. A tentative agreement on the Platte requires more water for fish and wildlife.

Federal approval in the program cannot be taken for granted. Only 29 programs in 25 states have been approved.

But it doesn't take a genius to understand that the conservation program makes a lot more sense than paying farmers to try to grow crops that burn up in the sun for lack of water.

In other parts of the country, the new program has been used to protect national treasures such as Chesapeake Bay and the Florida Everglades.

In the Nebraska the program would help maintain the Platte River as a crucial stop in the annual migration of sandhill cranes. The sight of hundreds of thousands of the birds swooping over the Platte attracts tourists from all over the world. It's a part of the natural world well worth protecting.