Illinois - Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Wildlife Habitat

"It's time to start getting this the way I want it, when I can see the prairie grass just waving, and the songbirds. My wife and I would rather watch songbirds than TV." "This" is Bob and Mary Black's 380-acre farm in Morrison they bought in 1992, all of it managed for wildlife. "It's my heaven on earth," Black says. "I just want to enjoy nature and wildlife, not ruin their day-to-day just because it doesn't fit with my day-to-day. I just want to be a part."

The Blacks have enrolled 216.8 acres in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), 36.5 of them under the continuous CRP sign-up for buffers. They have applied several different conservation practices--all for wildlife, according to Mark Kaiser, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) District Conservationist in Whiteside County. There are 110 acres of cool season grasses, 64 acres of prairie grass, 25 acres of trees, 13 acres of filter strips, and 4 acres of mixed plantings for wildlife habitat. "If you are looking for a place to show people what CRP can do for a farm, this is the one. The highly erodible fields were contour stripped before CRP, and all native grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees follow the old strips. The bottomland has four shallow water areas with trees, shrubs, native grasses and forbs, and legumes and cool season grasses; and there's one seasonal wetland."

Black has planted "over 30,000 trees--bottomland hardwoods, some evergreens on another section, all kinds of dogwoods, chokeberries, and eight or nine different kinds of flowering bushes to give songbirds more berries to eat. When the CRP runs out, I think--'this is how the land will be. It's how it'll be for my grandchildren.'--That's helped me, and all the folks who've helped me, look long-term."

Black said, "This land probably never should have been farmed. You could drop cars in some of the gullies there were. At a cost of $6,000 to $7,000, we had bulldozers make structures to fill the holes and divert water away from where the ground had been eroding. They work perfectly; the seeding is coming in, the water was diverted, and it's only been two and a half years." CRP made it possible to take the property out of production "and the land will continue to stay out of production. The banker looked at that as 'non-productive'--it's not bushels per acre. I told him, I'm not interested in bushels; I just want 18 acres of food plots for animals."

Black appreciates the professional help he's had from "district, state, and Federal people; all kinds of people who know the right way to do it. All we have to do is say 'yes'--and sometimes put up some money." According to Kaiser, the Whiteside County Soil and Water Conservation District helped with controlled burning and planting; Whiteside Natural Area Guardians furnished seed for native grasses and forbs; State of Illinois "Conservation 2000" funds, administered through the district's Conservation Practices Program, were used for cost share on structures on non-CRP land; equipment was loaned by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the conservation district; and the Fish and Wildlife Service helped with one of the shallow water areas. Says Black, "We want to add back the amount of money we get from CRP. Every year, whatever payment we get, we are planning to put it back into improving the land for wildlife."

The Blacks are plainly in love with the place. "We lived on it from 1974 to 1976 when I was teaching high school. We rented it for $150 a month, and I had to work off part of the rent. The owner knew I loved the place and once said, 'I see how you work this place, and think, wouldn't it be nice if you could have it some day?' I said I'd never be able to afford it, since I couldn't even afford the rent. But, miracles happen, and now we own it."

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