Galesburg Reporter

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources said it’s bringing back the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP).

“My staff was honored to attend the announcement from IDNR Director Callahan and stakeholders,” Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) wrote on Facebook. “CREP covers the Illinois & Kaskaskia Rivers and their respective tributaries. A large portion of my district is included in the program.”

Farm Week Now reported a change in CREP will require landowners to participate in both the federal and state parts of the program.

For over 20 years, CREP has been a successful partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA), Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs). The goals of CREP are to reduce sediment and nutrient runoff, improve water quality, and create and enhance critical habitats for fish and wildlife populations on private lands within the Illinois and Kaskaskia River Watersheds.

“CREP is one of our most flexible tools when it comes to voluntary, locally-led, partner-driven conservation efforts, and we’re so glad that we’re able to put it to work again in Illinois,” FSA State Director Scott Halpin said to Farm Week Now.

In CREP, landowners enroll frequently flooded and environmentally sensitive cropland in a Federal CREP contract, with FSA. IDNR extends the terms of that Federal contract by enrolling the land into an Illinois CREP Grant of Conservation Right and Easement Agreement beyond the expiration of the Federal contract.

In exchange for voluntarily removing land from production, landowners received compensation to implement conservation practices that contribute to the goals of CREP.

Channel News 20 reported that 68 counties can participate in the program. 

The goals of CREP include the following:

“Establishing and maintaining decreasing long-term trends in annual sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus loading within the Illinois and Kaskaskia watersheds; increasing the population of avian ‘Species of Greatest Conservation Need,’ as defined in the Illinois Wildlife Action Plan, on land enrolled in CRP through this CREP by at least 50 percent when compared to similar land managed for agricultural production; and increasing the number of native fish species and environmentally sensitive aquatic insects (stoneflies, caddisflies, and mayflies) on average by 15 percent within stream reaches associated with land enrolled in CRP through this CREP when compared to similar streams surrounded by land managed for agricultural production. The stream reaches sampled for this goal will rotate between streams in the Kaskaskia Basin and the Illinois Basin annually.”