Illinois - Environmental and Economic Benefits, Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)

The Conservation Reserve Program's (CRP) 14th sign-up came along "just in time" for Leon Wendte, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) District Conservationist in Champaign County. Even before the National Conservation Buffer Initiative and the continuous CRP sign-up, he had a goal of putting 2,000 miles of buffer strips along both sides of all 1,000 miles of stream in the county. "We enrolled 200 miles in sign-up 14 alone, which means about 10 percent of the goal." In addition, 250 acres of riparian forest buffers along the Embarras River were added under sign-up 14. Diane McNaught, NRCS Soil Conservationist in Champaign County, said, "we've been signing up riparian buffers right and left since the fall." By the spring of 1998, there were 1,754.7 acres in filter strips, 825.5 acres in riparian forest buffers, 10.9 acres in contour grass strips, 26.1 acres in windbreaks, 197 acres in grassed waterways (with another 400 acres in the sign-up process), and 14.4 acres of shallow water areas for wildlife.

Wendte's goal is consistent with the watershed plan to keep the Embarras River from flooding Villa Grove, a town with 3,000 people about 20 miles south of Champaign-Urbana. Says Wendte, "We're getting close to having an entire riparian buffer in the floodplain for a number of miles upstream of Villa Grove." McNaught adds that the marginal pasture allowance "is great; it made it possible for us to enroll all that floodplain acreage, and eventually that will have an effect on the flooding of Villa Grove." Villa Grove's Mayor Ron Hunt concurs, "I know farmers care more than they used to."

One farmer Wendte has worked with is Don Koeberlein who says, "I wasn't a die-hard environmentalist, but when [University of Illinois scientists] measured nitrates in the pipe and then in the stream, I saw I was contributing." He and his brother farm corn and soybeans on about 1,300 acres near Tolono on the Embarras River (which flows via the Wabash and the Ohio into the Mississippi). And when the university specialists said a test nearby had shown that a strip of grass would keep a substantial quantity of nitrates out of the groundwater and that adding trees would remove even more, Koeberlein got interested. He has restored 26 acres of wetlands and has rerouted most of his drain tiles into the restored wetlands so they can filter out nitrates and trap sediments--"so, I'm diluting, not polluting."

Now, Koeberlein is enrolling 60 acres in CRP along both sides of his 1.5 miles of the Embarras for riparian forest buffers. He is planting hardwoods, and already has planted 5,000 oaks, ashes, and walnuts. Koeberlein figures the forest filter will help surface and groundwater quality, but also will serve for floodwater retention for downstream cities such as Villa Grove--and it will be good for wildlife. "I gave up cattle for birds," he says. His wife runs a 100-acre quail, pheasant, and chucker hunting preserve on non-tillable land. The family enjoys seeing egrets, herons, and other water birds benefiting from the increased frog populations in the restored wetlands. For his efforts, Koeberlein won the 1996 National Wetlands Award.

Another Champaign County producer is Mike Mooney who shares the family farm on the East Branch of the Embarras with his two sisters. They have always had some trees and a swath of grass in the floodplain, but now they are creating a denser forest on about 30 acres of the riparian area they've enrolled in CRP. They are planting 9,000 trees--pin oaks, burr oak, swamp chestnut oaks, and 750 pecans. "We kind of like woods. We're in the central part of the Corn Belt. It's flat as a pool table and all in corn and beans. I like corn and beans," Mooney says, "that's where we get our money. But, we also like trees."

Mooney says, "For the last three or four years we've been looking for something to do with these woods. CRP came along and it's just what we were looking for. It was a godsend. This way we can add to the trees, which we always liked, and help the ecology of the creek." The rent helps, too. "We have to farm the way we do because of economics. We can't afford to let land be idle. I may be getting old-fashioned, but wouldn't it be nice to farm as we used to--with three years of crops and one fallow?" Mooney does use no-till and limits his fertilizer use to plant needs to avoid runoff. "Nitrogen is causing problems, and if we don't control our use of it voluntarily, someone will force us. They're finding nitrates rising, and we thought it might be lawns, etc., but it turns out we in agriculture are responsible, and we need to accept that responsibility."

Villa Grove Mayor Hunt thinks that's happening. "I think the farmers are becoming more conscious of flooding and the environment. I can think back 30 years; farmers weren't involved. We have enough concerned farmers thinking conservation through the area. I think they're doing what they can. Mike Mooney wouldn't mind losing a couple of rows of corn for clean water, for wildlife, or for downstream. This younger generation seems more concerned about Villa Grove. Now, we both care about each other."

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