USDA signed 1,139 contracts to enroll 200,186 acres in the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) in FY 2011. This represents a 27 percent decrease from last year’s 272,762 acres, a result of the $119 million cut made to WRP during the FY11 appropriations process. USDA signed contracts for 414 thirty-year easements totaling more than 59,000 acres, as well as 708 permanent easements totaling nearly 140,000 acres. In addition to the easements, USDA signed 16 restoration cost-share agreements for 963 acres.
For the Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP), USDA signed 110 permanent easement contracts totaling more than 78,000 acres in FY 2011. We do not yet know how many short-term rental agreements were signed, nor how many dollars were obligated for technical assistance.
USDA enrolled 301 parcels totaling more than 212,000 acres in the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) in FY 2011. We do not yet know how much was obligated to the states for FRPP technical assistance.
Below are lists of WRP, GRP, and FRPP contract and acreage data for the top five states in terms of number of contracts signed.
For WRP, there were also a handful of states that, while they had far lower total number of contracts than the top five, nonetheless had very substantial acreage totals. Those include Florida (22,879 acres), Louisiana (18,876 acres), California (12,463 acres), and Texas (8,102 acres).
Wetland Reserve Program – Total
| State | Number enrolled | Acres Enrolled |
| North Dakota | 182 | 31,344 |
| Minnesota | 131 | 13,322 |
| South Dakota | 92 | 10,203 |
| Missouri | 74 | 6,353 |
| Indiana | 47 | 3,191 |
Grasslands Reserve Program – Permanent Easements
| State | Number enrolled | Acres Enrolled |
| South Dakota | 16 | 7,318 |
| Idaho | 13 | 22,909 |
| Iowa | 9 | 956 |
| Kansas | 8 | 5,115 |
| Missouri | 8 | 1,178 |
While only 3 contracts were signed in Colorado, those contracts accounted for nearly 23,000 GRP acres.
Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program
| State | Number of parcels | Acres Enrolled |
| Ohio | 73 | 10,210 |
| Connecticut | 35 | 1,483 |
| New Jersey | 24 | 1,797 |
| Pennsylvania | 20 | 2,691 |
| Wyoming | 19 | 96,227 |
Other states with high-acreage FRPP enrollments include Montana (49,299 acres), Nebraska (25,450 acres), and Colorado (9,477 acres).
Email gfogel@sustainableagriculture.net for a full breakdown of program data.