Conservation Reserve Program CP33–Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds Bird Monitoring and Evaluation Plan 2006–2011 Final Report

By: Wes Burger, Mark D. Smith, and Sam Riffell

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers a suite of Farm Bill conservation  programs and practices that provide incentives to enhance environmental quality on privately-owned agricultural lands. In 2004, the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) initiated conservation practice Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds (CP33) under the continuous sign-up Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to target recovery of northern bobwhite (Colinus virgianianus) and other upland bird species in rowcrop agricultural landscapes. This was the first CRP practice designed specifically to help meet recovery objectives of a large-scale wildlife conservation initiative and the first to require a wildlife monitoring component as part of its practice directive.

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