National and Regional Implications of Targeting the Conservation Reserve

Within the Conservation Reserve (CR) program, a change in program criteria could reduce the amount of erosion material entering our nation's waterways. The inclusion of land adjacent to water bodies, flowing streams, and river waterways may reduce erosion from these lands and improve water quality. These buffer strip areas, removed from production and placed in the reserve with a vegetative cover, would limit sedimentation and act to prevent upland erosion materials from reaching waterway channels, thus enhancing the programs' environmental benefits. This paper analyzes the economic benefits of including buffer strups as eligible CR land, and it reviews the problems of identifying such areas.