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USDA CELEBRATES EARTH DAY 2006 <br />U.S. Department of Aqriculture actions on Earth Day 2006 include: <br />0 Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns traveling to Wiggins, Colorado to highlight two <br />Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) partnerships totaling $91.6 <br />million that will conserve water and improve wildlife habitat, two major Earth Day <br />objectives; <br />0 Noting record amounts of hazardous fuels restoration work accomplished under the <br />Healthy Forests Initiative; <br />• Investing an additional $115.9 million in water and wastewater infrastructure <br />projects in 28 states throughout rural America; <br />0 Senior USDA officials participating in Earth Day activities in more than 15 states. <br />KEY CONSERVATION EFFORTS <br />I - Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) <br />CREP uses unique state and federal partnerships that allow participants to <br />receive incentive payments for installing specific conseNation practices. <br />Through CREP, producers can receive annual rental payments and cost-share <br />assistance to establish long-term, resource-conserving covers on eligible land. <br />Nationwide, close to 646,000 acres are enrolled in CREP, including about <br />92,000 wetland and buffer acres <br />• Sign-up for both Colorado CREPs announced today begin June 12, 2006, <br />and continues until enrollment goals are met, or through Dec. 31, 2007, <br />whichever comes first. Enrolled land witl remain under contract for 14 to 15 <br />years, as specified in the contract. <br />:- Conservation Reseroe Proqram (CRP): <br />,. . <br />, <br />? <br />The Conservation ReseNe Program (including General, Continuous, and farmable Wetlands) enrolls 36 million <br />acres with the goal of reducing soil erosion, improving water and air quality, and improving wildlife habitat. <br />• CRP annually reduces the erosion of our nation's soil by over 470 million tons and further aids surface water <br />quality by reducing fertilizer applications (700,000 tons of nitrogen, 110,000 tons phosphorous). <br />• There are over 3.4 million acres of wetlands systems in CRP. These acres provide wildlife habitat. Additionally <br />CRP has 3.5 million acres dedicated for wildlife habitat. <br />• Current CRP contracts contain more wetlands and buffers than previous decades. Ten years ago there were <br />400,000 acres of wetlands and buffers each. Today there are two million acres of wetlands and 2.5 million <br />acres of buffers.