(Juneau) The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says anyone with flooded crop lands should consider enrolling for CREP, which stands for the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. CREP is one component of the federal Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP. The CREP program offers both state and federal financial incentives to landowners who install conservation practices along waterways, or return continually flooded fields or pastures to wetlands. Adjacent land can remain in agricultural production. There is no minimum acreage, and landowners may enroll land under either a 15-year agreement or a perpetual easement. To be eligible, the land must have been in production at least four years between 2008 and 2013. Lands in 50 Wisconsin counties are eligible for CREP, that includes Dodge, Jefferson, Columbia, Green Lake and Fond du Lac counties; Washington County is not eligible. Available practices include filter strips that place grasslands between crops and water, riparian buffers planted to trees and shrubs between crops and water, and wetland restorations on sites smaller than 40 acres. All these practices reduce flooding impacts by stopping water and allowing it to seep into the soil and subsoil and filtering it before it enters streams. For more information, visit www.datcp.wi.gov, and search for CREP.
To view all 50 counties eligible, click here:
