The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program — while a widely popular program — has created some discontentment over perceived guidelines and goals.

Pennsylvania CREP was developed to help protect the Ohio River from the effects of excessive nutrient and sediment loading due to agricultural runoff. This program is expected to have significant water quality and wildlife habitat benefits.

CREP participants receive an annual rental payment for either 10 or 15 years. Average CREP rates are $80 to $90 per acre for Butler County.

Some of the misconceptions are corrected as follows:

CREP land is not open to public hunting

CREP land cannot be enrolled if the tenant is removed involuntarily

CREP land must be maintained as per the conservation plan

CREP crop land must have been harvested in at least four of the years from 1996 to 2001

CREP land is not permitted to grow into brush and woody vegetation unless it is a stream buffer

CREP land cannot be converted to other uses for the lifespan of the contract.

CREP land is enrolled for 10 or 15 years; the participant chooses

CREP is only terminated upon death of the participant

CREP contracts can be succeeded by a third party

Fields that have been mowed off every year but not harvested are ineligible unless within 180 feet of a stream

CREP land cannot be harvested or grazed until the contract expires

CREP is for active farmers who do not want to give up cropland (sod waterways, woods line corridors).

CREP offers participants flexibility for their farm acreage. No two farms are exactly the same and, under CREP, participants can choose how CREP applies to their farm. One may enroll a steep field. Another may only enroll sod waterways and a corridor around the woods line of the fields. Someone else may plant native grasses to encourage pheasant populations. Most of the time there is more than one option for producers to consider with CREP.

Producers need to realize that each practice contains many different eligible components. For example, lime, fertilizer, drain tile, spring developments, fencing, etc. ... are all eligible components under certain practices.

Listed below are the current CREP practices.

CP1 — Establishment of Cool Season Grasses

CP2 — Establishment of Native Warm Season Grasses

CP4D — Permanent Wildlife Habitat

CP8A — Grass Waterway

CP9 — Shallow Water Area for Wildlife

CP10 — Grass Already Established

CP12 — Wildlife Food Plot

CP15A — Contour Grass Strips

CP21 — Filter Strips

CP22 — Riparian Buffer

CP23 — Wetland Restoration

CP29 — Wildlife Habitat Buffer

CP30 — Wetland Buffer

Although there is an ongoing enrollment, producers should allow six months time before CREP acreage is approved and under contract. Enrollment will stop when 65,000 acres are enrolled in 16 counties of the Ohio River Watershed.