Protecting Soil Resources by Improving Wisconsin Farmland Preservation Program

Soil erosion is a continuing problem in Wisconsin, with erosion rates at double the national standard and rising. Among other environmental concerns, this erosion impairs cropland productivity and pollutes waterways. Wisconsin’s Farmland Preservation (FP) program is the state’s largest program for maintaining soil erosion conservation standards. To combat soil erosion, this report recommends improvements to FP program incentives and conservation standards. The FP program sees substantial enrollment loss from contract expirations, so policy recommendations include changing the FP timespan from 15-year contracts to 5-year segments with automatic renewal. Additionally, to further increase enrollment in FP, the report recommends increasing enrollment incentives by scheduling annual increases in FP tax credits indexed to inflation. The final recommendation is the addition of tilling conservation standards to FP guidelines to decrease soil erosion.