Quail Unlimited and Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Support CP33 Bonus Program

Preliminary results indicate increased sign-up in the program when additional financial incentives are offered to landowners over and above USDA payments.

Edgefield, SC (PRWEB) October 8, 2006 -- Quail Unlimited (QU) and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) has resulted in high participation in the CP33 program in a three county focus area in Kentucky. Preliminary results indicate increased sign-up in the program when additional financial incentives are offered to landowners over and above USDA payments.

Beginning in 2005, KDFWR and QU offered one-time $150 per acre bonus payments for landowners in McLean, Ohio and Webster Counties who enrolled eligible land in the CP33 Upland Buffers Program. Bonus payments were limited to a maximum of ten acres or $1500 per landowner. However, over half of the landowners who qualified for the bonus payments entered more than ten acres even without additional payments. Rental rates for acreage enrolled in the CP33 program in these three counties average $87 per acre, so with the additional bonus payment, landowners realize over a 17 percent increase in annual rates over the 10 year contract.

To date, 89 landowners in the three counties have participated in the bonus program with almost 1450 acres enrolled in the CP33 practice. This accounts for over one-fourth of the total CP33 acreage in Kentucky even though the three counties only comprise less than ten percent of the cropland in Kentucky.

CP33 is one of the practices in the Conservation Reserve Program that was developed specifically for bobwhite quail. It provides for establishment and maintenance of field borders for nesting and brooding habitat around eligible crop fields. Landowners with these type field borders can increase the quality of their quail habitat and should experience a response from the native quail population.

Quail Unlimited has been very active in the promotion and implementation of wildlife-friendly practices in the Farm Bill and other legislation. In addition, Quail Unlimited has begun its twenty-fifth year as the oldest conservation organization dedicated to the wise use and management of America’s wild quail. QU has also worked with the KDFWR and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to establish three cooperative Northern Bobwhite Conservation Initiative (NBCI) intern positions in Kentucky. Those interns are also promoting CP33 practices in Kentucky to enhance quail habitat.

For more information on the Kentucky Bonus Program, CP33 or NBCI, please call Dave Howell at 812-536-2272 or visit http://www.qu.org.

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