Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP)

Updated 1/25/2010

The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) began in 2003 as a multi-agency effort to quantify the environmental benefits of conservation practices used by private landowners participating in selected U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation programs. The project consists of three components:

• National Assessment - Providing national summary estimates of conservation practice benefits and assessing the potential for USDA conservation programs to meet the nation’s environmental and conservation goals. Cropland, wetlands, wildlife and grazing lands will be assessed.
• Watershed Assessment Studies - Basic research on conservation practices in selected watersheds nationwide to provide a framework for evaluating and improving performance of national assessment models.
• Bibliographies and Literature Reviews - Current literature on conservation programs. Four literature reviews are being developed that will document what is known and not known about the environmental benefits of conservation practices and programs for cropland, fish and wildlife, wetlands, and grazing lands.

...More background information about CEAP

Some documents on this page require Acrobat Reader.

• CEAP Fact Sheet (PDF; 6 MB)

What's New

• Wildlife: Wood River Valley Aquatic Habitat Study, January 2010 (PDF; 2.8 MB)

• Wildlife: Linking Long-Term Pheasant Population Trends with the Conservation Reserve Program, January 2010 (PDF; 0.2 MB)

• Wetlands: Assessing Wetland Restoration and Creation Practices Implemented under U.S. Department of Agriculture Conservation Programs in the Southeastern Coastal Plain, October 31, 2009 (PDF; 0.1 MB)

• Wildlife: National Evaluation of Wildlife Benefits of CRP practice CP33 (Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds) October 2009 (PDF; 3.1 MB)

• Wildlife: Effects of the Conservation Reserve Program on Priority Shortgrass Prairie Birds, July 2009 (PDF; 5.3 MB)

• Wildlife: Analysis of Missouri Wetlands Reserve Program Easement Monitoring Data. May 2009 (PDF; 2.5 MB)

• Wildlife: Conservation Reserve Program Bird Monitoring and Evaluation Plan 2007 Annual Report, May 2009 (PDF; 3.1 MB)

• Wetlands: CEAP Wetlands Assessment in California’s Central Valley: Progress Report, March 31, 2009 (PDF; 0.4 MB)

• Wildlife: The CRP Enhances Landscape-level Grassland Bird Species Richness, CEAP Conservation Insight, January 2009 (PDF; 0.2 MB)

• Overview: Enhancing conservation on agricultural landscapes: A new direction for the Conservation Effects Assessment Project, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 63:6, pp. 198A-203A. November 2008 (PDF; 0.6 MB)

• Overview: The first five years of the Conservation Effects Assessment Project, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 63:6, pp. 185A-197A. November 2008 (PDF; 1.9 MB)

• Watersheds: CEAP Watershed Studies are highlighted in CEAP Special Issue of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, November 2008

• Wetlands: Background summaries for the Wetlands Component Collaborative Studies, CEAP Backgrounders, November 2008