The ethanol rush is enticing farmers to pull out of the Conservation Reserve Program and put marginal land back into production, as this Los Angeles Times piece notes. This bodes ill for wildlife, especially grassland species. We’ll likely see some fine wildlife habitat taken out of the CRP here in Pennsylvania as the rush to get into the ethanol race accelerates.
The $2 billion CRP pays owners not to cultivate land that’s prone to erosion, is marginal for farming and significant for wildlife habitat. But it’s voluntary. And the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s leadership says we’re likely to see increased use of pesticides and fertilizers as the lands are pulled out of CRP.
Read Ted Williams’ excellent column on ethanol to learn why ethanol is a borderline scam.
The Bush administration strikes again.
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.