September 10, 2026
Give Wildlife a Place to Survive
Across the country, wildlife is disappearing because we keep taking away the places animals need to survive.
Habitat loss is the primary cause of today’s elevated extinction rates. And across America’s farm country, grasslands that once sheltered wildlife have been converted to row crops — including millions of acres of corn and soy used to feed cattle, pigs and poultry raised for human consumption.
Wildlife biologists see the consequences firsthand.
For decades, biologists in Iowa have driven the same country roads every August, counting pheasants, quail, rabbits and other animals. Their surveys document dramatic changes in wildlife populations alongside an enormous loss of habitat.
Since 1995, Iowa has lost more than 500,000 acres of land protected through the federal Conservation Reserve Program — and more than 1.4 million acres of grassland and other wildlife-friendly habitat overall.
The Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, pays farmers and landowners to voluntarily take environmentally sensitive or marginal farmland out of production and establish conservation cover instead.
That can turn a field that might otherwise be planted with row crops into habitat for pheasants, quail, songbirds, pollinators and other wildlife. It can also reduce soil erosion and help protect water. It’s a win for animals and for people in nearby communities.
But farmers shouldn’t have to take a financial hit to give wildlife a home.
When CRP contracts expire and payments can’t compete with what landowners could earn from the land, grasslands can be plowed under. Meanwhile, Congress has capped CRP enrollment at 27 million acres nationwide.
The USDA says the program is already so close to that limit that enrollment is highly competitive. That means willing landowners and valuable wildlife habitat are competing for limited space in a program designed to protect both.
At a time when habitat loss is pushing more wildlife toward extinction every day, Congress should be helping willing farmers protect more habitat — not limiting how much land can be conserved.
Thank you for all that you do,
Mitch w/ Animal Commons
Source:
Iowa Capital Dispatch | Decades of August roadside surveys in Iowa show wildlife and habitat changes
Photo: A large group of pheasants spotted during one of the Iowa DNR’s August roadside surveys. (Photo credit IA DNR)
