CRP In the City
Neighbors Add CRP In Mechanicsville City Limits, Much to the Delight of the Community
 If the citizens of Mechanicsville, Iowa, didn’t know anything about the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) prior to 2016, they do now.
Neighbors Bob Steen and John Sandberg live within shouting distance of each other near the northeast city limits of Mechanicsville, about a 30-minute drive east of Cedar Rapids. They own adjacent agricultural land that sits partly in and partly outside of city limits.
Since 2016, their family and friends – along with the entire community – have enjoyed the beauty and uniqueness of native plants and grasses and the various wildlife that utilize CRP for food and shelter.
“It’s been a topic of conversation within the community,” says Steen. “It’s not just us enjoying it. I think people around here love the beauty of it.”
Steen and Sandberg have hosted field days and tours for young children and adults, alike, who want to know more about this enormous, colorful flower “garden” on the edge of town.
Why CRP?
Sandberg, a retired home builder, developed some of his cropland into the neighborhood they call home, including a nearby elementary school. For years, neither paid much attention to the few acres of cropland they rented out to a local farmer. However, Steen noticed farm equipment getting larger and it began to affect his and other homes in the area. “When the sprayer came along here, it was getting awfully close to our house,” he says. “The last corn harvest out here, I was cleaning up husks out of the neighbor’s yards. Our homes were just too close for that size of equipment.”
As a local banker who works often with farmers, Steen was familiar with CRP and knew he and Sandberg’s land might qualify. CRP is a conservation program administered by the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) where landowners receive a yearly rental payment in exchange for removing environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that improve environmental health and quality.
Steen owns just over five cropland acres near his home. He approached Sandberg about including a couple of his adjacent acres in CRP. “I had never heard of CRP until Bob mentioned adding two acres by the creek,” said Sandberg.
To learn more about it, he went to the Cedar County USDA Service Center in Tipton to familiarize himself with the program. “I left there knowing that I wanted to not only add those two acres, but knew I wanted to add another 10 acres, too,” said Sandberg.
Steen and Sandberg both qualified for CRP in 2015 and signed 10-year contracts to enroll nearly 17 contiguous acres, helping them to re-establish cover and help improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, and add wildlife habitat to their properties.
To learn more about Steen and Sandberg's efforts, visit: The NRCS Conservation Showcase.
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