WRP Tracts

[dukluk]

I don't know about them catching you, but it could be costly....but, in the 14th year of my 16 year crp contract, my son wanted to build a house, and I requested to take one acre out of the crp for his house site....I had to pay back every cent that I had been paid on that one acre for the entire 14 years, plus compounded interest, plus a penalty....best I remember, I had to re-pay them about $1,200 to get that one acre released.

[Bercy]

Not much reported case law on WRP, but I just saw this from a case in Montana or somewhere -> "Statute governing Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) did not require that participating landowner assent to conservation plan or that agreement to implement conservation plan be made apart from easement conveyed by the landowner."

I.e., landowner has no say in what, if any, conservation plan that may be implemented.

Second i.e., stay on the good side of your NRCS guys.

[420 racin]

I don't knwo about the stipulations in WRP contracts but there has to be soem sort of minimum survival percentage you must achieve. i know for mitigation land (not WRP) you have to obtain at least 52% survival after five years. I woudl think that WRP plans would have some sort of the same stipulation. If that is the case then you could thin/cut down your trees so long as you don't fall below the required survival percentage. Of course you would have areas throught the stand where survival varied greatly, but overall survival is what they look at. I would think, again I don't deal with regulations in WRP, that if there is a minimum survival percentage you are required to meet, you shouyld be able to thin the stand as long as you don't go below that. Having said that I don't knwo how cutting food plots would fit into that, realistically it woudl be no different than an area that had no survival???

Foresters, any thoughts on what you would do to manage this stuff. We are fixin to hit a point in the near future where we will have ALOT of this stuff in the delta and it seems like no one really knows what to do with it.

Tensas has done some research and applied several different treatments to some stands and they are monitoring how the stands respond, so far I have been impresssed with the results. but all the work they did could have been avoided had they not plated so many to start with. Just my opinion

[Bercy]

Pursuant to WRP contracts (ours at least), landowners are contractually prohibited from “altering . . . woodland, wildlife habitat or other natural features by . . . cutting or otherwise destroying the vegetative cover; . . . harvesting wood products”.

While at the same time, there is a special provision (in ours at least) that “the landowner will be allowed to harvest timber according to a timber harvesting plan approved by NRCS that is consistent with the long term protection and enhancement of the wetland resources . . . Single tree or group selection methods of harvesting will be used to ensure that multiple age classes are maintained similar to a natural forest . . . The amount, timing and intensity of timber harvesting allowed by the plan may vary based on the type of forest ecosystem for which timber harvest is proposed.”

[acornman]

You guys with specific questions can PM me, and I will try to answer them. However, most of the people with WRP knowledge on this board have already told you to contact your local NRCS office, and that is the correct first step. The local office can elevate your questions/concerns to the appropriate personnel.

There are a lot of policy issues currently being discussed, and I am pretty certain that some decisions will be made soon about thinning (intermediate stand management) on WRP tracts.

I expect my inbox to be full of questions on this topic. I will answer them as I have time; this is a busy time of the year for me.

acornman

[redspeckable]

Thanks acorn man. I have a have a call out to my NRCS guy and hope to hear from him Monday.

[novacaine]

You guys with specific questions can PM me, and I will try to answer them. However, most of the people with WRP knowledge on this board have already told you to contact your local NRCS office, and that is the correct first step. The local office can elevate your questions/concerns to the appropriate personnel.

There are a lot of policy issues currently being discussed, and I am pretty certain that some decisions will be made soon about thinning (intermediate stand management) on WRP tracts.

I expect my inbox to be full of questions on this topic. I will answer them as I have time; this is a busy time of the year for me.

acornman

There's your contact. He has seen the good, the bad, the ugly of it all.
But back to my original solution (Not the answer you will get from NRCS), drive your bush hog like a drunk mexican when they are young and be sneaky with a chainsaw if they get out of hand.
Don't be blatant or piss off your neighbor who may turn you in. If you do get caught take your medicine.................they can get your attention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!