The Dixie Plantation has participated in the Conservation Reserve Program for 13 years. Over 1,000 acres of the 9,050-acre farm are enrolled in CRP.

The land is divided into two zones: one for quail habitat and one for commercial timber.

Located in the heart of the Florida panhandle, the Dixie Plantation sits in rural Jefferson County - a county that boasts the highest CRP enrollment in the state with over 10,000 acres enrolled in the voluntary USDA program.

Part of the Dixie Plantation's CRP contract acreage is planted in a 6-year stand of long leaf pine. Grass strips and natural vegetation for wildlife-such as Autumn Olive trees-abound and create ideal conditions for quail, turkey, and deer. About 80,000 wildlife trees grow on more than 700 acres, including 9,000 autumn olive trees and 2,000 sawtooth oak trees. Wild black cherry and plum bushes now grow in abundance on this pristine land that was cultivated as a cotton plantation in the 1820's. Grain, sorghum, hay, corn, and oats are still farmed on 400 non-CRP acres of the farm. Certain food plots are also planted for wildlife.

Area youth benefit from the conservation efforts maintained on the Dixie Plantation through yearly ecological tours given to approximately 100 Jefferson County 5th grade students as well as nearly 250 Boy Scouts from South Georgia and 300 Boy Scouts from North Florida.

The trustees learned of the CRP program through local newspapers.

"We wanted to improve the quail population, and the row strips of long leaf pine qualified us for CRP," said Earl Bennett, forester and trustee for the Livingston Foundation.

"In most places, quail have decreased, but here they've increased," said John Finlayson, a trustee of the Livingston Foundation, that manages the Dixie Plantation. He attributes the decline in quail populations on other farms to a lack of habitat. "Farm practices such as clearing weeds, no small fields, old fence rows eliminated, sprayed chemicals - all contribute to the decline in quail."

"At the time of renewal, we increased [our CRP acreage] by more than half. That tells you how much we like it," said Finlayson. "The fact that we could renew it [CRP enrollment] is a distinct advantage, because some of the farmers would have had to cut their trees. We started with a real good quail population and have been able to maintain it. Everything we do for quail has also increased deer and turkey."

CRP acreage provides a great buffer for water bodies and helps preserve wildlife habitat.

Long-leaf pine trees provide wildlife habitat.

Part of the Dixie Plantation's CRP land is planted in a 6-year stand of longleaf pine. Grass strips and natural vegetation for wildlife--such as autumn olive trees--abound and create ideal conditions for quail, turkey and deer.

Autumn olive trees and natural vegetation provide quail and turkey with needed protection from hawks. Wild black cherry and plum bushes now grow in abundance on this pristine land that was home to a cotton plantation in the 1820's.

The Dixie Plantation's longleaf pine trees were perfect plantings for CRP. The slow growing trees are thinned every 20 years and burned every other year.

A longleaf pine tree can grow to more than 120 feet in height with its trunk becoming more than three feet in diameter and can live for three or four centuries.

Randy Floyd, Dixie Plantation Superintendent; Patricia Sorensen, Farm Service Agency Program Technician; and Earl H. Bennett, Forester, examine the various types of wildlife-friendly vegetation planted on the farm's CRP acreage.