A large portion of the CRP acreage in Montana lies along the "highline," an area near the Canadian border where the winds can be extreme, causing severe wind erosion to the fine sandy loam soils.

During the 1980s, moisture was scarce across Montana. In 1987, Choteau County literally had sand drifts eight feet high. Stuart Elliott's fences were buried by blowing dirt, and vehicles on the highway had to turn on their lights to be seen through the blowing soil.

In order to plant his crops, Elliott actually had a road grader go ahead of his tractor to grade the sand dunes. Even with this preparation the wheat and barley stands were unable to survive the lack of moisture. Elliott needed a program that would assist in holding the highly erodible soil in place and also be economical at the same time.

"I needed to plant something that would hold that ground in place -- it was a necessity," Elliott said. CRP was the answer. In 1987 Elliott enrolled 303 acres in CRP and planted a mixture of wheat grasses and alfalfa. At first, the alfalfa stand was hard to establish in the fine soil but, with maintenance burning practices, "the alfalfa came back supercharged," Elliott exclaimed. Elliott re-enrolled the acreage in CRP in 1997.

With both the Missouri River and the Teton River flowing less than one mile from the acreage, Elliott's CRP has also provided excellent wildlife habitat for the many mule deer and whitetail deer that live along the river bottoms.

"I'm praying I can reenroll the acreage," stated Elliott. "CRP is the only answer to save that sandy highly erodible land."

More than 45 million tons of soil are saved each year due to the 3.4 million acres of Montana's cropland enrolled in the CRP.

Before CRP, wind erosion in Choteau County, Montana, caused eight-foot tall sand drifts.

CRP grass cover reduces loss of Montana's highly erodible soils.