South Dakota - Conservation Reserve Program

"When they built the road back in the 1920s or '30s, they needed fill; so they took it from the creek, so the creek started taking out the bank. There had been fenced pasture, and the stream had washed so much away that there were five fence posts just hanging in air." Roger Orton raises corn and soybeans on about 1,200 acres along Battle Creek in Lake County. The creek flows into Lake Campbell which drains into the Big Sioux, the source of water for Sioux Falls.

Orton recently did some bank stabilization and put trees along a half mile of Battle Creek in an 80 acre field. "With the two rows of trees, you really make yourself a border; where otherwise, you're always looking for that extra row. It makes a nice natural border so you stay far enough back from the creek. On the home place, we squared off a corner and put it in CRP [Conservation Reserve Program] where before, you'd try to get as close to the wet spot as you could. With CRP, you set aside land that probably shouldn't be farmed anyhow."

"The CRP rent is a toss-up," says Orton who has around 180 acres enrolled. "There are years you'd do better with crops, other years not. It's hard to say, but we figure we'll come out even or ahead. The rent will be enough to pay the taxes--unless they keep going up--and the land payment. We looked at it as a kind of insurance because we'll have it for the 10 years, and on some of that marginal stuff it's iffy. You'd hate to miss a land payment if you did have a disaster."

Orton figures the shrubs and trees he's planting will be good for wildlife. "There wasn't really good hunting here last fall because our pheasant population was down so far [because of the record cold 1996-97 winter]; but if they get some cover, we should start seeing that population come back--especially if we have another mild winter. I'm looking forward to the changes in the place. In five years or at the end of 10, there should be some pretty good hunting."

Also in Lake County is Don Hansen who was unenthusiastic in the beginning. "So many of the programs that come along they say, 'you will do this or else,' but this [CRP and the National Conservation Buffer Initiative] seems more voluntary, and I think they'll get more results. In the past, government programs have forced you into one thing in order to get another. A lot of farmers know what they're doing and they don't want someone telling them. The money helps, but when you go in on a voluntary basis, you want to see it work, too. The people they get to go into this program are more interested to know how it works."

Hansen expects "a pretty good rent" for the 21 acres he's enrolling in CRP along 1.5 miles of waterways on his 160 acre farm. "Besides," he says, "it's hard to raise a crop right up to a waterway; you need a turn lane." Hansen worked out a plan with Chuck Lebeda, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) District Conservationist in Lake County, to plant a mix of seed "so it will self-select," says Lebeda. "These areas bounce in and out of hydric soils, and what survives on uplands won't do so well on hydric soils. With a mix from high ground to low, one of the grasses will probably catch on and that can help control weeds and hold down erosion the first year or two. Also, if a producer simply leaves an area with good native seed sources, it will revert naturally. If you take the pressure off dormant seeds of native grasses, they'll come back naturally."

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