Federal Wetlands Program Lets Carroll Co. Farmer Have His Cake and Eat It, Too - by: Jim Low

First posted on 05-04-2007

Pat Jenkins saw a 60-percent increase in crop yield when he traded flood-prone land for upland acreage, using income from the Wetland Reserve Program.

DeWITT, Mo.-Patrick Jenkins knows what it is like to farm flood-prone land. He also knows how much more profitable it can be to trade chronically wet acreage for higher ground, and he understands that some crops cannot be measured in bushels per acre.

Jenkins’ farming roots run deep into Missouri history. His forebears settled near the Grand River in 1842. From his hunting cabin, he can see the cemetery where his great-grandfather is buried.

“I grew up farming,” said Jenkins. “I started out on a tractor when I was 12. I’ve got great-nephews who are farming.”

Jenkins knew from generations of experience how productive the fertile river bottoms of eastern Carroll County could be. The same depth of experience told him that farming in a river bottom is an uncertain proposition.

Part of his landholdings, a 600-acre farm along Big Creek, a tributary of the Grand River, was a good example. He grew corn and soybeans on a little more than half the land. In good years, his crop yield was 150 bushels of corn per acre. In wet years, the stream chewed away at earthen levees protecting his land. Poor internal drainage cut deeply into yields.

As much as he loved the land, he could see its problems, and he could tell a good deal when he saw one.

“I try to keep track of government programs,” he said. “After the ‘93 flood they had the Emergency Wetland Reserve Program (EWRP). I had a tract of land along Grand River that I put in that program.”

Under the federal program, Jenkins received payments for taking flood-prone land out of crop production. Three years later, he decided that a similar deal available through the regular Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) was a good idea for his river-bottom farm.

WRP is a federal Farm Bill program administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). It is a key part of President George W. Bush’s program to ensure that the United States has no net loss of wetlands and, if possible, a 3 million-acre increase in wetlands by 2009.

WRP encourages landowners to take flood-prone acreage out of crop production voluntarily and make changes on enrolled acres to benefit wildlife. To make this affordable, the program offers cash payments for 30-year or permanent conservation easements.

Some landowners choose to sell land after selling easements that prevent future farming. That is what Jenkins did with his EWRP acreage. On his WRP land, however, he took a different approach, making use of federal matching funds to enhance his wet acres’ value for wildlife.

“I love to hunt and fish, and it seemed like one of those things where you can have your cake and eat it too. I put this 600 acres in WRP and went and found another tract of land to do a 1031 exchange with. Actually, I bought a better farm to farm. I’ve got another farm to farm and a place to hunt and fish.”

The “1031 exchange” Jenkins mentioned is a way of legally avoiding capital gains taxes on WRP payments. Instead of accepting cash for his WRP easement, he rolled the money over into a new farm on higher ground.

The new farm has proved to be good trade. Whereas Jenkins’ WRP acres never produced more than 150 bushels of corn per acre, he harvested 240 bushels of corn per acre on the new land in 2004, a 60 percent increase in productivity.

“The economics of purchasing uplands with money from WRP easement on floodplain ground secured Mr. Jenkins’ ability to farm,” said Missouri Department of Conservation Private Land Program Supervisor Bill White. “He still owns and manages the restored wetlands on his original ground.”

Jenkins used federal matching funds to install levees on his wettest land, creating two permanent 40-acre marshes. Stop-log water-control structures allow him to hold water at different levels on up to 300 acres. He also planted trees on 37 upland acres.

“I kind of have a mini Grand Pass.” He says proudly, referring to one of Missouri’s top public waterfowl hunting areas. “I have five main pools and I can run water any direction in them.”

Jenkins’ marshes attract large numbers of waterfowl. Last year he and famed wildlife photographer and outdoors writer Judd Cooney shot 130 snow geese on the area in one day during the federal conservation order. The conservation order is intended to allow hunters to reduce the North American snow goose population, which is so large it is damaging their habitat.

Best of all, Jenkins gets to see wildlife on the area throughout the year.

“You can only eat so many ducks,” he said. “Watching them is as much fun as hunting. I get a lot of waterfowl on the area in the spring, too.”

Landowners have voluntarily enrolled more than 2.1 million acres in WRP. Missouri landowners have enrolled 790 tracts totaling 116,839 acres and received $147.6 million in return.

To learn more about WRP, contact local US Department of Agriculture service center or visit http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/WRP/.

-Jim Low-