Incentive monies are available for the following options:
1. Landowners will be able to utilize additional cost-share and incentive monies to restore wetlands on cropland through the Farm Service Agency's CP23A Wetland Restoration Program.
2. For each acre receiving CRP payments: a landowner will receive an up-front incentive payment of $100/acre for a 10-year enrollment and $150/acre for a 15-year enrollment.
3. The CP23A Wetland Restoration is a new program that allows producers to restore large wetland complexes and playa lakes that are located outside the recognized 100-year floodplain. There is no size requirement, just a 4 to 1 buffer to wetland ratio.

Wetlands are low-lying ecosystems where the water table is always at or near the surface. Playas are shallow, depressional, rechargeable wetlands formed through a combination of wind, wave, and dissolution processes with each wetland existing in its own watershed. Playa lakes are scattered across the western Great Plains and average 17 acres in size. A threat to playas is sedimentation from cultivation of adjacent cropland.

Benefits:
This initiative will further the large-scale accomplishments of CRP, which, as of July 2004, had restored 1.8 million wetland and wetland buffer acres nationwide.

Creating an additional 250,000 acres of large wetland complexes will:
* provide vital habitat for many wildlife species, such as upland ducks and sandhill cranes:
* filter runoff;
* recharge groundwater supplies;
* protect drinking water;
* reduce downstream flooding; and
* provide recreational opportunities, such as bird watching and hunting.

Restoring playa lakes will:
* provide habitat for migratory waterfowl during migration and winter. In fact, over 90 percent of the region's over-wintering waterfowl depend on the playas, and over 90 percent of the mid-continental population of sandhill cranes over-winter in the region:
* benefit many other species of birds, animals, and plants.
* recharge groundwater supplies critical for drinking water, irrigation, and wildlife.

Eligibility
Enrollment is limited to wetlands, including playa lakes, that are beyond the 100-year floodplain. The wetlands acreage must also not be currently eligible for enrollment in either:
* CRP continuous sign-up practice CP23, Wetland Restoration, which targets land located in the 100-year floodplain; or
* FSA's Farmable Wetlands Program, which protects farmed and previously converted wetlands of less than 40 acres per tract.

In addition, cropland must be suitably located and adaptable to the establishment of wetlands. In addition, the applicant must satisfy the basic eligibility and cropping history criteria for CRP.

Approved Conservation Practice
Program participants must apply conservation practice CP23A, Wetland Restoration Non-Floodplain, on eligible cropland. The purpose of this practice is to restore the functions and values of wetland ecosystems that have been devoted to agricultural use.

Payments
* A Wetland Restoration Incentive Payment equal to 25 percent of the cost of restoring the hydrology of the site;
* An Annual Rental Payment; and
* Cost-share Assistance of up to 50 percent of eligible practice installation costs

Source: Farm Service Agency