WRP making a difference in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley
Ducks Unlimited reforested more than 2,200 acres and restored hydrology to 1,169 acres of bottomland hardwood forests in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi this year.
Through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), DU delivered this conservation work to improve waterfowl habitat in the critically important Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. WRP is an important conservation program in the farm bill that supports private land conservation and restoration.
DU worked hard to get positive changes included to WRP for the greatest impact in conservation acres in the recently passed 2014 Farm Bill. Some of the changes include the seven-year ownership rule being shortened to two years; a wet soil class exemption that will open up acres in previously capped counties; and elimination of a mandated percentage of acres that previously had to be designated as agricultural easements but may now be conserved as wetland easements.