More than 150,000 acres are enrolled in Pennsylvania’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program to improve watershed quality and wildlife habitat, according to the Game Commission.

CREP has become the largest water quality-wildlife habitat partnership on farmland in Pennsylvania's history.

Pennsylvania's 265,000 allocated CREP acres, and 156,157 contracted acres (as of January 2006), lead all other states. The closest states to Pennsylvania's tallies are Nebraska with 200,000 allocated acres, and Illinois, with nearly 109,620 contracted acres.

"The Pennsylvania CREP has enrolled more than 150,000 acres since it was started in 2000," Carl G. Roe, Executive Director of the Game Commission, said. "It's a tremendous accomplishment and likely will become as vital to our state's conservation history as the federal Soil Bank program in the 1950s and '60s.”

Administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency (FSA), CREP is a successful partnership involving states and the federal government in an ambitious initiative that uses monetary incentives to help conserve and rehabilitate environmentally-sensitive agricultural lands in water quality-compromised river drainages by carrying out projects that reduce erosion, restore degraded habitats and increase protections for ground and surface water.

Started in 2000, CREP is administered primarily by the Game Commission and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pennsylvania’s goal is to improve wildlife habitat and water quality, and reduce soil erosion on 265,000 acres in 59 counties, while monetarily compensating landowners for their participation.

In addition to participating landowners, hunters, trappers and anglers are direct beneficiaries of CREP, as are neighbors of program participants, bird-watchers and others who care about improving the environment.

The Department of Environmental Protection has continued to provide substantial funding for CREP through the state's Growing Greener initiatives. Many other partners - including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy - have contributed to this program.

CREP started in the lower Susquehanna and Potomac river basins. In 2003 it was expanded to 23 additional counties. Less than a year later, 16 counties in the Ohio River drainage were added ($146 million in augmented funding). Only eight Pennsylvania counties - all in the Delaware River Basin - do not participate in CREP.

Bradford County currently leads the state in CREP enrollment with more than 11,000 acres. Other counties with substantial acreage include: Columbia, with more than 9,700 acres; Northumberland, 9,600; Somerset, 7,700; and Tioga, 7,500.

More than 25,000 Pennsylvania acres - 39 square miles - of native warm-season grasses have been established under CREP. Equally significant are the more than 1,400 miles of forest riparian stream buffers that have been placed under contract.

Landowners wanting more information can call toll-free 1-800-941-CREP (2737) or visit the Pennsylvania’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program webpage .

3/3/2006