Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News
The Newsletter of the Great Lakes
Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund
The Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat News is the newsletter of the Great Lakes Aquatic Habitat Network and Fund, published five times per year. The News is intended to provide a forum for the free exchange of ideas among citizens and organizations working to protect aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
Volume 15, Number 2 • Summer 2007
Lake Erie
Basin Update - U.S. Side
A Fully Funded Farm Bill:
The Health of Our Lakes Depends on It
By Trent A. Dougherty, Ohio Environmental Council
Farmers are stewards of the land. Yet,
because of rising production costs and the
influx of large-scale agriculture, it can be
difficult for farmers to put habitat and
water quality first. The Conservation
section of the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill contains
a host of programs and incentive for
farmers of all sizes to conserve land and
waters, especially those of the Great Lakes.
If the waters of the Great Lakes are to be
restored, the federal government must make these Farm Bill
Conservation Programs a top priority. More farmers apply for the
conservation programs than funding allows each year, yet as energy
concerns dominate the landscape there is fear that even fewer
funds will be available. The need for increased conservation of water
and habitat and the desire of farmers to be involved in conservation
mandate full funding.
While there are over half a dozen important conservation
programs within the Farm Bill, much of the money allocated in the
Great Lakes Basin goes to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
Results of the CRP program include:
- reduced soil erosion,
- reduced sedimentation in streams and lakes,
- improved water quality and wildlife habitat, and
- enhanced forest and wetland resources.
The Program encourages farmers to convert highly erodible
cropland or other environmentally sensitive acreage to vegetative
cover, filterstrips, or riparian buffers.
Of particular importance for Lake Erie is how CRP lands filter the
nutrient phosphorous from farm field runoff that would otherwise
enter the Lake. Phosphorus is added to farmland as an important
nutrient for crop growth. However, there can be too much of a good
thing, especially when uncontrolled runoff and soil loss finds its
ways into the waters of the Great Lakes Basin.
Dissolved phosphorous levels in Lake Erie are rising at
devastating levels, leading to oxygen depletion, algae growth, and
the return of the dead zone.
Acres under the CRP program must be increased under the new
Farm Bill. But with the reemergence of the desire for energy independence
and the President's desire to create more ethanol plants,
there is risk that land currently set aside for wildlife
habitat and water quality conservation may be put back into production.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has temporarily halted new
enrollments in the program, and though it will probably not release
CRP land this year, the pressure to do so will only increase. Energy
considerations must be additional to, and not replacement for, the
existing goals of the Conservation Title programs. We can develop
many sources of clean energy, but we have precious few sources of
clean water and wildlife habitats.
It is important that our lawmakers hear from those of us who wish
to seek greater protection for our Great Lakes. A recent Healing Our
Waters - Great Lakes Coalition (HOW-GLC) report, "Cultivating
Restoration: How Farm Bill Conservation Programs Help Heal
Our Great Lakes," sets out detailed recommendations for the
Farm Bill that promote agricultural land conservation and aid
the cause of Great Lakes restoration. The HOW-GLC report can
be found at http://restorethelakes.org/FINAL_HOW%20Report.Cultivating%20Restoration.pdf.
For more information contact OEC Staff
Attorney Trent Trent A. Dougherty at trent@theoec.org.
|
