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State Stix Conservation Reserve Program Created by the federal Food Security Act of 1985, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) pays rent for 10 years on highly erodible croplands converted into permanent vegetative cover (grass and trees). The eighth sign up in February 1989 brought total CRP land nationwide to 30.6 million acres, topping the previous record of 28.7 million acres in the Soil Bank Program in the 1960s. Source: Federal Reserve Bank, Chicago, Agricultural Letter, June 16, 1989. How's Illinois doing? After the eighth sign up Illinois had 546,267 acres in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). In the ninth sign up an additional 114,632 acres were tentatively accepted, bringing the total to 660,899 acres. Nationwide, preliminary figures show about 4 million acres were added, for a total of over 34 million acres. Source: John Baird, U.S. Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS), Springfield. How's Sangamon County doing? There have been 2,400 acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program; bids were sent in for another 1,500 acres on August 4. As of September 13 there was no news from Washington on whether the bids were accepted. "The Office of Management and Budget is raising red flags on CRP programs, saying the cost of the rental is too high." Source: Dan Towery, Sangamon County Soil and Water Conservation District. Waiting lines at tree nurseries Thanks to the state Forestry Development Act and the U.S. Conservation Reserve Program, about 4,000 acres of land in Illinois are being planted in trees each year now, compared to 800 to 1,200 acres annually five years ago. Increased demand has caused a scarcity of seedlings in both state and private nurseries. The Department of Conservation received $3.2 million to expand its seedling program. Source: Department of Conservation, Outdoor Highlights, August 21, 1989. Conservation plans for farming highly erodible fields Farmers must submit conservation plans for farming highly erodible tracts of land to the U.S. Soil Conservation Service (SCS) by December 30, 1989. The compliance deadline is 1995. After that date, failure to implement could put farm program benefits at risk. By the end of 1989, SCS's Illinois Office expects plans will have been submitted for 90,000 tracts of land out of about 100,000. Some of the shortfall is caused by farmers not receiving a soil survey in time. They will get an extension. Other farmers will not take part. Most of the plans involve moving from traditional tillage to conservation, or from conservation tillage to no-till. Farmers are also contouring. And sometimes they are changing rotation of crops from corn and soybeans to corn, soybeans and wheat. Wheat produces more residue and more coverage, so it offers some erosion control. Also, with world stocks down, wheat prices are up. But under present law, farmers can't increase their wheat acreage from what it was in previous years without losing federal benefits. Source: Harry Slaughter, Assistant State Conservationist, U.S. SCS. What about Sangamon County? Over 90 percent of the compliance plans are written. "We have a certain segment of farmers who hope it's a paper plan. We have 25-40 percent already implementing even though they've given themselves until 1994 to comply. They're doing no-till, managing residues, planting grass along waterways. The rest are waiting." Source: Dan Towery. Acres transferred to nonfarm use as a result of state actions Fiscal 1985: 32,211.8 + (430.57*) *Land purchased as permanent easement. Source: Farmland Conversion Annual Reports, Illinois Department of Agriculture. Top three agencies and actions (fiscal years 1985, 1986, 1987) Commerce and Community Affairs: Enterprise Zones — 50,061 acres converted (or eligible for conversion) to nonagricultural uses. Conservation: Land acquisition for plant and wildlife conservation and for recreation — 21,549.83 acres. Illinois Environmental Protection Agency: Permits for sewer lines and sewage treatment facilities — 20,465 acres. Source: Same as above. Converting farmland to other uses As of September 11, the U.S. Soil Conservation Service (SCS) had not received the latest five-year statistics from the National Resources Inventory showing conversions of farmland to urban uses in Illinois in 1987. In 1977 the base year of the survey, SCS estimated that 100,000 acres of Illinois farmland were being converted to other uses each year. It now believes the 1977 loss rate to have been about 50,000-75,000 acres a year. The 1982 survey showed 125,000 more urban acres than in 1977. This averages to 25,000 acres of farmland lost each year. In the 1987 survey the SCS expects to find a slight increase in farmland conversion — perhaps an average of 30,000 acres per year. Source: Ray Herman, State Resource Conservationist, State Office, U.S. SCS. Comfortable balances The general funds balance at the end of August was $411,881 million. The average daily available balance was $628,453 million. Source: Office of the Comptroller. Jobs and jobseekers With surprisingly good economic reports indicating that the economy continues its record-long expansion, the nation's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 5.2 percent in August. In Illinois it rose to 5.9 percent from 5.6 percent in July. In spite of the gain, the jobless rate was the lowest for the month since 1979. The state's civilian work force in August consisted of 5.889 million people, an increase of 29,000 over last month; 5.540 million had jobs and 349,000 were looking for work, an increase of 22,000. More people entering the work force plus losses in government and education and scattered layoffs in trades, finance and mining accounted for the higher jobless rate. Construction and seasonal employment showed gains. Last month's statistics for metro areas were preliminary. Final unemployment rates for the state's metro areas in April, May and June were:
Source: Department of Employment Security. Margaret S. Knoepfle October 1989 | Illinois Issues | 5
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