The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is arguably the world's largest conservation program on private lands, with $1.8 billion paid to farmers in 2017 for practices on 23.4 million acres. Existing theory and literature suggest that a modified auction structure could make CRP more...

Conserving contiguous areas often enhances environmental benefits. However, most conservation efforts are incentive-based and voluntary, and neither reward landowners for contiguity nor do they select based on contiguity. Thus, achieving optimal contiguity of conserved parcels is unlikely. Using...

USDA spends over $5 billion per year on conservation activities, mostly through voluntary programs that pay farmers and landowners to provide environmental services. USDA can reduce expenditures and encourage landowners to provide greater environmental services by making use of available data....

The U.S. Department of Agriculture spends over $5 billion per year on conservation programs, mostly on voluntary programs that give financial assistance to farmers and landowners to provide environmental services (such as implementing nutrient management programs or planting native grasses)....