National Conservation Buffer Initiative

The National Conservation Buffer Initiative is a multiyear effort undertaken by the Natural Resources Conservation Service in cooperation with the Farm Service Agency, Forest Service, Extension Service, state conservation agencies, conservation districts, and many other public and private sector partners.

The purpose of the initiative is to encourage the use of conservation buffers by agricultural producers and other landowners to protect and improve soil, air, and water quality; enhance wildlife habitat; resource biodiversity; create scenic landscapes; and achieve other conservation objectives.

"Buffers" are strips or areas of land maintained in permanent vegetation to help landowners reduce potential pollution problems, both wind and water borne, and achieve other conservation objectives.

Examples of Practices

Examples of conservation practices that serve as buffers include filter strips, riparian forest buffers, contour buffer strips, field borders, windbreaks and shelterbelts, herbaceous wind barriers, cross wind trap strips, hedgerow plantings, grassed waterways, and alley cropping systems.

Conservation buffers are appropriately installed along streams or in uplands - within crop fields, at the edge of crop fields, or outside the margins of a field. Buffers can also be used at strategic locations on nonagricultural landscapes, including urban areas.

Numerous factors affect the performance of conservation buffers, including:

• Upland characteristics, including land use, soil type, and a slope's steepness and length above the buffer

• Use of complementary upland treatments that influence the amount of runoff reaching the conservation buffer

• Amount of time runoff is retained within a conservation buffer.

• Uniformity of water flow through a conservation buffer

• Soil infiltration rate

• Maintenance of the conservation buffer

Preliminary estimates indicate a need for 8 million to 10 million acres of conservation buffers on land eligible for CRP enrollment. This estimate is currently being reviewed by NRCS, FSA, and ERS to determine more precisely the actual extent of buffer acres that could be eligible for enrollment in the CRP via the continuous sign-up.

The buffer initiative is tied partially, but not entirely, to the continuous CRP sign-up. Buffers can be installed under numerous other USDA programs, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), and Emergency Watershed Program (EWP).

Key Messages:

• Producers who have acres that will return to crop production once the contracts expire can leave buffers in place and re-enroll those acres under the continuous sign-up.
• Producers who made offers during CRP sign-up 20 that are not accepted can enroll eligible portions of the acres they offered under the continuous sign-up.
• Acres that meet the requirements of conservation buffers are automatically accepted into the CRP, assuming the landowner is willing to accept the maximum rental rate allowed. Producers need not go through a competitive offer process.
• Incentives of 20 percent over the going CRP rental rate are paid for many of the continuous sign-up practices.

For those landowners who are not interested in CRP participation and some of the accompanying limitations, cost-sharing and technical assistance may be available for buffer installations under a number of other programs, including EQIP, WHIP, and WRP.

• Program Benefits