The 1990 farm bill and water quality in Corn Belt watersheds: Conserving remaining wetlands and restoring farmed wetlands

ABSTRACT:

Two contingent valuation surveys including 770 mail surveys and 157 personal interviews were conducted in ten Corn Belt counties to estimate potential enrollment of farmed wetlands in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and in the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) and to elicit farmers' and farmland owners' attitudes toward Swampbuster. Weighted, piecewise-linear regression was used to obtain estimated enrollments from the mail survey data. Results from the two surveys indicate that enrollment of farmed wetlands in the CRP climbs from 2-8% of eligible acreage at an annual rental rate of $90lac/yr to 52-64% at $140lac/yr. Enrollment reaches 81-83% at rental rates of $400lac/yr. For the WRP, the two surveys are in less agreement. According to the mail survey, enrollments climb from 4% of eligible acreage at $500lac for a 30-year easement to 26% at $2,500lac. Enrollments climb more rapidly at higher easement rates reaching 78% enrollment at $4,000lac. Results from personal interviews, however, indicate much lower enrollment rates of less than 2% of eligible aceage at $1,700lac climbing to 20% at $2,500lac. Beyond financial considerations, dealing with problems of altering drainage facilities is a primary barrier to enrollment of farmed wetlands in the WRP.