A CRP in Hand Is Better than Bush

Another blog from Bart...

Last November, fellow Sierra Club staffers Paul Shively, Jim Margadant and I took a day to enjoy some of
South Dakota’s world famous pheasant hunting. We were joined that season by over 180,000 other hunters who explored the wide open spaces and added $219 million to the state’s economy during the roughly 4 month long pheasant season.

Paul, Jim and I hunted on a beautiful ranch that gave this Easterner a nice taste of the rolling grasslands, pronghorn herds and endless blue skies that make South Dakota a world class destination for lovers of the outdoors. Even though we were hunting late in the season we saw lots of roosters, and we killed a few that would later be turned into stew or pheasant au vin. Standing there on the prairie, my 12 gauge over my shoulder, feeling the weight of birds in my pockets, my legs aching from all the walking, I didn’t want the day to end. I was already making plans to come back next year. All of the hallmarks of a good hunt were there.

Some of the ranch we hunted on was enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP.)  Despite the benefits its provides for America’s wildlife, the Bush Administration has now authorized allowing CRP lands to be used to feed livestock, a move many conservationists see as continuing the Administration’s practice of weakening America’s system of conservation.

Luckily, not everyone sees the Great Plains the same way the Bush Administration does. Luckily most Americans recognize that the economy and conservation can be balanced and reconciled and that is exactly what many plains states residents are doing. Not only are they seeking to conserve what natural treasures are there but they are also seeking to restore some of the riches that have been lost. In the process, they are creating a new economy, a green economy where by all accounts there is a still a lot of money to be made.

 What is happening on the Great Plains is conservation for the 21^st Century, conservation that works for both people and wildlife. If the Bush Administration were true to its rhetoric it would be supporting this work instead of undermining America’s conservation infrastructure.

Send a message to the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, to fully restore the CRP.