"I rank CRP as the single most successful government program ever created," declared Leland Christenson, owner of an 800-acre Wisconsin farm. Leland and his wife Kristen knew their land was too hilly and highly erodible to support cattle and intensive agriculture. So they enrolled more than 200 acres in CRP and Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program contracts that have transformed their land.

The Christensons planted native prairie grasses and hardwood trees on their once eroded agricultural fields. The now healthy fields are home to a plethora of insects, reptiles, birds, and other wildlife. "What was once an ecological desert is now a diverse plant and animal environment -- a direct result of CRP," noted Leland.

Along stream banks, the Christensons removed trees that impeded the growth of vegetation needed to hold the soil in place. They filled in drainage ditches along the creeks to return fields on the bottomlands to wetlands. Resloping the banks and installing riparian buffer strips transformed the creeks into deep, fast-moving, highly-oxygenated streams that are now bountiful with brook trout.

CRP tree planting transformed an eroded pasture into a forested hillside.