Prepared by Jane Clark

Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) and
Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP)
Backlog

I received these numbers in an Excel file and have pasted them in.  This is
where Iowa stands on unfunded Wetland Reserve projects.  We have 358 offers
from landowners to do a WRP project, totaling 36,697 acres, and we don't
have the $70 million to pay for the projects.   WHIP projects have fewer
landowners waiting in line, but this program is little known and could have
more demand with more information provided.

  WRP
         Unfunded Permanent       ==         Unfunded 30 years
State   offers    acres    funds                    offers  acres  funds
IA         316     34,074    $64,747,897            28    2,529
$5,236,378

            Unfunded Cost-share                     Total unfunded
            offers    acres    funds                    offers  acres  funds
               14             94        $157,559           358  36,697
$70,141,834


WHIP
            # of Apps
                              Value             Accepted         Unfunded
IA           42        $212,308         22  $125,474      20  $86,834

WRP and WHIP (and Farmland Protection FPP) were zero-funded by President
Bush in his budget and by the House of Representatives' 2002 agriculture
appropriation bill, according to a television advertising campaign launched
today by PIRG, Sierra Club and other farm and conservation groups around the
country. The advertisements will air in Iowa, Wisconsin, Florida, North
Dakota, South Dakota, and Illinois.

"With help from three very popular programs, America's farmers have been
protecting wildlife, by protecting wildlife habitat," according to the
commercial. "But now President Bush is proposing the government spend...
Nothing for the Wetlands Reserve Program... Nothing for Wildlife Habitat
Incentives... Nothing for Farmland Protection. Will Congress turn that
around?"

The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program
(WHIP) and the Farmland Protection Program (FPP) have proven extremely
popular with stewardship-minded farmers, offering them a means to improve
conservation performance on their farms with projects of their own design.
These programs have faced chronic under-funding, which culminated in
zero-funding in the president's budget and the House appropriation for 2002,
despite a backlog of thousands of farmer proposals for each of the programs,
representing more than a million acres and habitat for a host of wildlife
species.

The Senate has the opportunity to restore funding for WRP, WHIP, and FPP
through either the regular FY2002 Agriculture Appropriations legislation, or
through an emergency FY2001 supplemental currently before the Senate
Agriculture Committee.

The television advertising campaign will encourage citizens in several key
states to find out where their senators stand on funding for these vital
agricultural conservation initiatives, as the U.S. Senate has the
opportunity to reverse these short-sighted cuts by the president and the
House of Representatives.  In Iowa, the campaign will thank Senator Tom
Harkin for his support of conservation programs.

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