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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Wetlands Reserve Program

The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) provides technical and financial assistance to landowners to protect, restore, and enhance wetlands on their property. The WRP both purchases long-term and permanent conservation easements and restores the wetland ecological functions on enrolled lands.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • The USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) targets WRP to maximize performance measured through factors such as migratory bird corridors and the rate of wetland loss, state-level efficiency (such as average cost per acre and average time to complete restoration projects), and landowner interest in the program (such as the number and dollar value of unfunded applications).
  • To improve efficiencies, NRCS developed an easement database that enables the national office to evaluate the status of each state office's program delivery. The agency uses this information to track progress and manage the existing WRP workload to ensure the timely delivery of easement acquisition and restoration projects.
  • However, WRP overlaps with several other conservation programs that also help private landowners restore and protect wetland acres. In total, the Council on Environmental Quality's April 2005 update on the President's wetlands initiative identified 24 federal programs that restore, protect, and enhance wetland acres.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Improving WRP's cost effectiveness by achieving technical assistance efficiencies and reducing contract closure and easement restoration timelines.
  • Collecting and analyzing cost and performance data to improve program management.
  • Improving WRP's ability to prioritize and focus on priority natural resource concerns.

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