The contract you saw did not require improvements for wildlife either. Nor did it require native grasses to be planted nor did it require shredding or burning twice during the contract.
If anything was a pure give away it was the pre 1995 CRP contract. In addition the FSA and sportsmans groups made a startling discovery from the old contracts, like the one you read: If the land was not grazed, burned or shredded the birds and other wildlife discontinued use of that land after the fifth year. They preferred habitat that had some of the biomass removed in some way. Therefore the new contracts were changed to allow for grazing or haying, only in areas where drought was taking place, or shredding to revitalize the land. In addition each bidder for CRP dollars had to show what kind of improvements they would make to benefit wildlife.
CRP payments are not purchase payments they are rental payments. Therefore they are renting your land to idle it. If you, the land owner, comes in and takes something of value, ie forage, then the renter should have their rent reduced however if the renter wishes to maintain a portion of the forage they should still pay for that half. To do any different would run counter to every other contract in the U.S.
Also, I'm not wrong about whether ranchers or farmers really care about wildlife. If they cared about wildlife they wouldnt have to be paid to take unproductive/marginal lands out of production and get paid a government subsidy for it. They'd do it because its a proper management strategy and because they really do care about wildlife.
Buzz, I generally agree with you regarding wildlife policy, hell even public lands policy, but I think you have fallen into a trap of thinking you are so smart and have been involved with land policies for so long that you know it all.
Farmers and ranchers have to put crops and cattle first. That land has to pay for itself one way or another. As wildlife starts to become more valuable because of the money a farmer and rancher can make off of hunters then their management practices will also change. It is already happening here and it will turn hunting into the European Model where only the rich will hunt the good areas and the average people will be forced to choose a different form of recreation.
Of all the programs the government has put forth to benefit farmers and ranchers CRP is the only one that I know of that has had a real positive impact on wildlife populations. You have your opinion but news flash for you it doesn't make you right in this case.
Nemont