Published: August 01, 2007 10:37 pm         

Biofuel impacting hunters, waterfowl

As the time approaches to start filling deer feeders for the forthcoming hunting season, hunters statewide will notice a huge price increase for a bag of corn.

Last year they were high at around $5 for a 50-pound but now they are averaging around $7.00 and some are speculating they could get as high as $8 before the start of the season.

The reason?

Biofuel.

President Bush has called for the production of 35 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol (a type of biofuel) in the United States to curtail “global warming” and decrease dependence on foreign oil.

Certain environmental groups have been pushing biofuel for years and their battle against alleged “global warming” has reached the status of a major political issue.

Some believe the effects of this policy will be beneficial for the environment but for hunters there are some possible negative effects.

First, there is the corn price issue. With demand for corn at record levels, prices are twice what they were a couple of years ago. It will be impractical for many hunters to feed year-round and for some lower income hunters to feed at all.

Far more concerning, however, is what the effects might be on waterfowl populations, which rely on habitat in the Midwest currently eyed for expanding corn production to keep up with the President’s initiative.

“An obvious concern associated with increased corn production is the fate of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a program that was created in the 1985 Farm Bill to idle highly erodible land by restoring it to grassland,” said Dr. Jim Ringleman with Ducks Unlimited.

“As the many other conservation benefits of CRP emerged, including the addition of 2.1 million ducks each year to the fall flight, the program became recognized as the most significant and successful conservation initiative ever implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).”

“Now, those in search of more corn ground are viewing CRP land as up for grabs. The USDA evidently agrees. Last February, it announced that no new CRP signups would be held in 2007 and 2008, and that it is considering allowing landowners currently enrolled in CRP to terminate their contracts early, all for the stated purpose of providing more acreage to meet the demand for corn,” he added.

Ringleman said cornfields do not provide suitable nesting habitat for ducks.

“And depending on how many acres of CRP are lost in the PPR, some portion of those 2.1 million ducks will not be flying south each autumn.”

Ringleman noted the demand for corn will also put pressure on the 22.3 million acres of remaining native prairie grassland in the U.S. Prairie Pothole Region.

This issue will be a major one for those who enjoy the outdoors over the next year and we will cover all anglers of this story as it pertains to hunting and wildlife on these pages.

     

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