Conservation Reserve Program and migratory birds in the northern Great Plains

U.S. Department of Agriculture programs have mediated supply and demand of commodities and maintained the agricultural industry, but several programs have also offered various kinds of conservation benefits. The 1985 Food Security Act (Farm Bill) featured the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which paid farmers to plant perennial cover on highly erodible lands and to leave this land intact for a 10-year contract period. During that period we conducted two studies to determine the value of CRP fields to breeding birds in the northern Great Plains.