Selected Articles from the LAND Newsletter

CRP STUDY REVIEWED AT MEETING

By LeAnn M. Harner, LAND Executive Director

NDSU Economist Dean Bangsund explained the results of a 2002 study on CRP acres in North Dakota comparing the recreational economic benefits to the economic loss in agriculture and attempting to show the net effect.

“There’s a lot of guesswork involved in this type of study,” Bangsund admitted. “For example, we have to make assumptions about how the CRP land would be used if it went back into production, what it would yield, what government programs/payments would be available and what crop prices will be.” Wildlife numbers are also guesswork and “a lot can change with a wet spring or a hard winter.”

In the six areas of North Dakota covered by the study, he estimates land in CRP generates $50 million less in income than comparable land actively farmed or ranched. The study estimates that recreational activities on CRP land may repay about 25% of that loss.

“This is the first study of this type,” stated Bangsund. “It’s really a lot of estimates.”