Palouse Prairie project faces ‘use it or lose it’

State ag officials have told Whitman County to use or lose it’s 2,000-acre allotment under the Palouse Prairie portion of the State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement program.

In 2008, the federal Farm Service Agency and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife created the program to restore or enhance 8,200 acres of wildlife habitat across the state.

The agencies set aside 2,000 acres in Whitman County to expand and protect the unique Palouse Prairie.

Landowners now have until Jan. 14 of next year to offer land for contracts or the 2,000-acre allotment to Whitman County will be moved to other projects in the program throughout the state.

Since its introduction the program has only had two land owners make offers to enroll portions of their land, according to Kathy Wolfe, director of the county’s FSA office.

The program is run similarly to the Conservation Reserve Program. Landowners receive payments for enrolling their property in 10 to 15 year contracts. Land must be able to grow crops to be enrolled.

The main difference between the two conservation programs is the type of grasses that must be planted. Wolfe said the mix of species that must be planted on land in the SAFE program requires more maintenance than CRP. She speculated that may be a key reason the program has not proved popular.

Land enrolled in the program would not count against the county’s 25 percent CRP cap.

The Palouse program was designed to provide habitat to ring-neck pheasants, native grasshoppers and savannah sparrows.

The Palouse Prairie project covers most of eastern and central Whitman County.

Other programs in the state are sited on the Olympic Peninsula, shrub-steppes in Grant, Lincoln and Okanogan counties and Columbia Basin field edges in Adams, Franklin and Grant counties.