WDFW bad rep

[Wacenturion]

"My Brother in Law is a farmer that got CRP funds despite NOT wanting to give permission to hunt, and still had signs posted on his property."

He may have gotten CRP funding despite not wanting to allow access, but according to his qualifing with WDFW assistance, if that was the case, he was legally committed by contract, both under WDFW co-operative agreement as well as federal CRP contract to do so.  Of course he could decide not to, but then he could lose his CRP payments.  If he qualified on his own without department assistance, then there would be no reason to consider access with WDFW.

Sounds to me like he couldn't qualify, but wanted the payment so used the appicable department program to do so to get the points and subsequent payments and then wanted to not allow access.  If that's the case, then I don't see where WDFW is at fault.  For the most part assistance is based initially on good faith agreements between both parties.

If he was so against allowing access why did he agree to it originally...$$. 

"and still had signs posted on his property" 

Of course there were signs posted....he agreed to that under the terms of the agreement(s) to get qualified for CRP and receive payments.  You make it sound like it was the WDFW program's fault.  If you want to blame someone for the perception of not allowing access under a legal agreement, then blame your brother-in-law.

[Blackjaw]

Exactly how do they check up on these farmers to determine if they are allowing people to hunt these areas? I believe a lot of them may give permission to friends and family and think they are following the rules. I also believe many of them give permission to the same people over an d over throughout the years making it impossible for a new person to 'get on the list'.  Don't get me wrong, if I was a land owner I wouldn't want/trust every Tom, Dick and Harry to hunt my land, but if you accept the money you are supposed to follow the rules.

Admittedly my sample size is small, but over the years I have tried to contact 3-4 different land owners regarding State sanctioned 'hunting by written permission only' in the June to July time frame and (after my detective work finding them) have been turned down every time. They were all nice about it, but I have a hard time believing I couldn't get permission from at least one of them.

Now when I pass by one of these 'Hunting by Written Permission Only' signs I just laugh and keep on going until I get to a true public hunting area, or some of the private land I have permission to hunt that is not enrolled in the program.

[pianoman9701]

Farmers who enroll in CRP have no obligation to allow hunting. CRP is completely to do with conservation and habitat creation. Here is the quote from the Farm Service Agency website:

"What is the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)?

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a land conservation program administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). In exchange for a yearly rental payment, farmers enrolled in the program agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality. Contracts for land enrolled in CRP are 10-15 years in length. The long-term goal of the program is to re-establish valuable land cover to help improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, and reduce loss of wildlife habitat."

source: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=copr&topic=crp

Their individual agreements with our own DFW may include access to private lands hunting, but that would be a separate issue and has nothing to do with CRP.

[Wacenturion]

Farmers who enroll in CRP have no obligation to allow hunting. CRP is completely to do with conservation and habitat creation. Here is the quote from the Farm Service Agency website:

"What is the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)?

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a land conservation program administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). In exchange for a yearly rental payment, farmers enrolled in the program agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality. Contracts for land enrolled in CRP are 10-15 years in length. The long-term goal of the program is to re-establish valuable land cover to help improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, and reduce loss of wildlife habitat."

source: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=copr&topic=crp

Their individual agreements with our own DFW may include access to private lands hunting, but that would be a separate issue and has nothing to do with CRP.

True in one sense but wrong in another.  Has everything to do with access if you need assistance to qualify.  WDFW was instrumental in assisting landowners on their bids to enroll into CRP.  The primary expenditure by the department was placement of cistrens on private lands to allow the landowner in question to get points for accessible water on their property for wildlife.  Depending on the size of said property, there may have been anywhere from one to several cistrens placed in the ground per landowner.  Other assistance on it's own or in addition to included habitat plantings, food plots etc. that also help qualify landowners.

Quite simply if a landowner had the type of property that scored high and needed no assistance, then he competed on his own to get the CRP contract.  However if his land lacked the components necessary to compete and sought assistance through the department's Upland Wildlife Restoration Program at the time, then the caveat was participation in one of the access programs in return for the assistance and program expenditures on WDFW's side.

Because of all the assistance provided, Washington landowners fared very well in comparison to other states, being near the top.  The successful rankings and scoring of those CRP qualifying items below were in many cases dependent on the above mentioned participation in partnerships with landowners statewide.

General CRP

 
How are General CRP sign-up offers ranked?

 
General CRP sign-up only occurs when the Secretary of Agriculture announces USDA will accept bids for enrollment. General CRP sign-up is competitive and offers are ranked against each other on a national level.

 
Offers made during General CRP sign-up are ranked primarily on the environmental benefits that will result from the proposed conservation practices to be put in place. FSA assigns each offer an Environmental Benefits Index (EBI) depending on the environmental sensitivity of the land and the type(s) of conservation practices proposed for it. It is this EBI that is used to rank offers against each other and selections for enrollment are made from that ranking.

 
Factors contributing to the EBI include:

 

    Benefits to wildlife habitat

    Benefits to water quality

    Benefits to the farm itself from reduced erosion

    Benefits to air quality

    Benefits that will last beyond the contract period

    Cost (of both annual rental payments and cost-share to establish conservation practices)