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Conservation programs in the 2002 Farm Act look good on paper.

Congress still must appropriate funds to pay for them, though, and even then, their effectiveness depends on the willingness of farmers to participate.

"What's authorized and what's appropriated are two different things," Mike Appel, assistant state conservationist for field operations with the USDA Natural Resources and Conservation Service said. "With the war, you don't know if a lot of this stuff will get nixed or not."

More than ever before, programs focus on establishing conservation practices on working land.

"There's a whole variety of things in that farm bill package that I would look at as being very much of a plus to the region," Appel said. "The bottom line is whether we'll get to see those or not."

How many farmers will sign up for the programs also is unknown.

"I don't know of any area in that part of the state where we don't have farmers that have participated at one time or another in some of those conservation programs," Appel said. "There's always somebody willing to put the dollars out of (his or her) pocket into improving the land, either economically or environmentally, for the next generation."

One of the bill's highlighted provisions, The Conservation Security Program, is also one of its more controversial items. It would offer three tiers of payments to producers who adopt or maintain a wide range of practices -- including nutrient management and conservation tillage -- that address soil, water and wildlife habitat issues.

The program still is under revision, and it is unknown whether it will run initially only as a small pilot program or whether it even will start this year. The bill authorizes more than $3 billion in program payments through 2007, but Congress already has moved $1.7 million out of the program to pay for disaster relief.

Looking ahead to possible appropriations in 2004, a general signup will start sometime this month for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). It is the first signup in several years, Jeff Holcomb, county executive director of the USDA Farm Service Agency in Marshall said. The program offers annual payments and cost-share assistance to farmers who establish grass and trees on highly erodible land.

The bill increases the number of allotted CRP acres nationwide by 2.8 million, to 39.2 million. Meanwhile, eligibility rules are tighter, requiring a cropping history in four of the last six years. The change is supposed to limit or stop farmers from breaking open undesirable farmland with the intent of qualifying for CRP payments, Holcomb said.

"They're anticipating that in this signup there will probably be seven million acres offered," Holcomb said.

Always some willing farmers

While farmers haven't been "knocking down the door" to participate in conservation programs, a small percentage willingly participate in every new program, Tabor Hoek, a conservationist with the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) said. About five percent of farmers participate in some program.

"You never expect to get everybody," Hoek said. "But it's just not quite enough."

Right now, in springtime, slightly more than 50 percent of lands in southwest Minnesota receive 15 percent of the region's residue, Hoek said.

"We're meeting some base level goals for our tillage and residue management but that still says there's roughly 45 percent that's being conventionally tilled," Hoek said.

Nutrient management has a long way to go, and buffers exist on only about 30 percent of sensitive land, Hoek said.

"If we could get half, things would start to look different," Hoek said. "But it's difficult for operations running 2,000, 3,000 acres to take the time out to take a look at doing something on a little five to 10-acre piece of their farm."

Lincoln County has the highest percentage of farmland enrolled in conservation programs, at 14.5 percent, followed by Kandiyohi County at 10.8 percent, Swift County at 10.5 percent and Lac qui Parle County at 10.1 percent, according to BWSR data (see "Conservation Lands Summary" chart).

Rock has the lowest percentage of land enrolled, at 0.8 percent, followed by Nobles County at 1.6 percent, Sibley County at 1.9 percent and McLeod County at 2.3 percent.

Every county contains at least some state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) wildlife management land; 13 of 21 counties also contain DNR parks. Only three counties -- Brown, Pipestone and Redwood -- are without any U.S. Fish and Wildlife land.

Farmers interested in conservation likely can find some program to suit their situations, he said.

"If you have an interest beyond just corn and soybeans, if there's issues that you're tired of dealing with, chances are there's either a program currently available -- or not too far down the road, maybe this fall -- that could address that issue," Hoek said. "There's so many programs now it kind of boggles the mind."

For instance, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQUIP) will continue, although cost-share payments for crop farmers and livestock producers who make environmental and conservation improvements could drop from 75 percent down to 50 percent.

One new provision in the EQUIP program would offer grants to stimulate new ways to leverage federal investment in environmental enhancement and protection. Another new provision would offer payments for ground and surface water conservation, including cost sharing for more efficient irrigation systems.

Now that the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program has ended in the Minnesota River watershed, more interest is likely in other programs where overlap previously occurred: The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program provides cost sharing to develop and improve wildlife habitat; the Wetlands Reserve Program offers money to restore wetlands on agricultural land.

To assist owners in restoring grassland and conserving virgin grassland, the bill establishes a Grassland Reserve Program with potential funding of up to $254 million through 2007. The program offers 10- to 30-year contracts, or it accepts permanent easements.

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