California Rice Grower Participation in the Conservation Security Program and Wildlife Conservation Behavior on Working Lan

The dramatic shift of California's Sacramento Valley from wetland to productive agricultural region has greatly impacted ecosystems in the region. Payment for environmental service (PES) programs fill a market gap by paying landowners to participate in conservation on their working land, targeting wildlife, soil, nutrients, emissions, and water concerns. The Conservation Security Program (CSP) from the Natural Resource Conservation Service was one such PES program available from 2005 to 2007. This study presents an analysis of rice grower adoption of the CSP, and the level at which they adopted wildlife conservation for CSP payments. While many growers took up wildlife conservation practices, only a small percentage adopted high impact, broad-scale habitat enhancements, despite proportionally high payments. We find that learning and extension processes related to the NRCS, demographic and land ownership factors, and grower attitudes are predictive of CSP adoption. Grower perceptions of wildlife populations, NRCS extension processes, and demographic and land ownership factors are predictive of wildlife conservation engagement within CSP contracts.