How might increases in commodity prices, along with the acreage reduction mandated in the 2008 Farm Act, impact the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)? Modeling StrategyThe Likely To Bid (LTB) model “restarts” the CRP from scratch. Uses National Resources Inventory data to find parcels...

We present a model that extends the replacement cost theory to cases where benefits are restored for multiple years. Our theoretical framework derives a functional relationship between investments expenditures and environmental benefits. By extending the investment framework, we model reservoir...

USDA has spent more than $4.2 billion on wetland restoration and protection over the last two decades. One challenge in allocating these funds is the lack of information on variations in wetland benefits and costs across the Nation. This report discusses the biophysical impacts of new wetlands...

Historically, long-term agreements offer an upfront payment as opposed to a series of annual payments. Past research suggests that public preferences for upfront payments are greater than the present-value sum of a series of annual payments. If this condition holds, then program costs can be...

Agri-environmental policy is at a crossroads. Over the past 20 years, a wide range of policies addressing the environmental implications of agricultural production have been implemented at the Federal level. Those policies have played an important role in reducing soil erosion, protecting and...

The objective of this research is to value soil conservation's impact on reservoirs. Using a model based on replacement cost, we estimate the benefits gained by marginal decreases in soil erosion for more than 75,000 reservoirs across the contiguous States. We aggregate benefits across the...

The range of environmental problems confronting agriculture has expanded in recent years. As the largest program designed to mitigate the negative environmental effects of agriculture, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has broadened its initial focus on reductions in soil erosion to...