Water Quality in Ohio River Basin Focus of WPC Work with Farmers

A $1 million grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will enable Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to maximize the impact of federal conservation dollars now available to farmers in western Pennsylvania’s Ohio River Basin. With the grant, WPC will mount a local outreach and technical assistance effort to encourage the region’s farmers to participate in the $145 million Ohio River Watershed Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), with special emphasis on protection of riparian buffers and important terrestrial and aquatic habitats associated with farmland.

This project will augment WPC’s work in the biodiversity rich Ohio River Basin where known conservation targets surpass any other Pennsylvania drainage. The number of species of sensitive freshwater mussels, for example, is several times greater in the Ohio Basin. CREP’s financial incentives for farmers to protect environmentally sensitive lands, preserve or enhance wildlife habitat and improve water quality on the land will increase the profitability of local livestock operations and benefit the environment downstream.

Recognizing both the value of agriculture to rural communities and the critical importance of stream quality and farmland habitats to the entire region, WPC worked with the Governor’s office and the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture for two years to bring CREP to the Ohio basin in 2004.

The presence of CREP in our portion of the Ohio watershed represents one of the largest agricultural conservation efforts in western Pennsylvania’s history. Long active in conservation of natural and forested areas, WPC has become increasingly involved in promoting sound conservation on the region’s working farms. For the next two and a half years, WPC will work with federal, state and non-profit partners to protect and restore 65,000 acres of environmentally sensitive land and water, while helping to maintain the working farm landscape that still defines much of western Pennsylvania.

View a slideshow of the CREP event at Friendship Farms in Westmoreland County this past April.

CREP Benefits Conservation

A healthy landscape with viable farms and open space is a key benefit of CREP. This effort holds the potential to protect and restore some of western Pennsylvania’s most imperiled natural habitats, while supporting the rural farm communities in which these habitats are found.

While the environmental benefits of restoring riparian zones are a driving force behind WPC’s interest in CREP, we also recognize the benefits that healthy riparian corridors offer to farmers themselves.
Farms need water for livestock. Dairy herds, in particular, are more productive and profitable when fresh clean water is available. Riparian restoration and protection provides that cleaner water, boosting farm profits.

Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to Focus Our Conservation Efforts

As WPC helps to implement CREP in the Ohio River Basin, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will be an essential component in our conservation toolbox. Many people are aware of the mapping potentials of GIS, but its power lies in its analysis capabilities.

GIS gives WPC staff and our partners the ability to identify watersheds where agricultural impacts are greatest, where rare and threatened aquatic communities or species exist, and where there are high concentrations of lands eligible for CREP participation.

Three-way Agricultural Conservation Partnership

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a three-way agricultural conservation partnership between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), participating states, and private conservation organizations. CREP is an “enhancement” of the original Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) that originated in the 1985 Farm Bill, and has several features that distinguish it from CRP.

CREP offers greater economic incentive, requires active participation of state and local conservation partners, and is designed to address local and nationally significant environmental issues. CREP targets active farmland, such as pastures and cropland, in areas where the agricultural activity creates a high potential for environmental degradation. Such sites are referred to as critical resource management areas.

A critical resource management area is defined as actively tilled land on steep slopes where soil and nutrient loss is potentially high. Examples are a pasture where livestock degrade a stream’s water quality, or a field or pasture where a conservation target such as a rare species is threatened by agricultural activity.

CREP assists landowners with implementing conservation practices on crop and pasture land through:

• Cost-share assistance for constructing eligible conservation practices (such as streamside fencing);
• Annual per-acre rental payments for leaving sensitive lands idle;
• Maintenance payments for keeping the conservation practice in working order;
• Two additional one-time-only incentive payments for installing practices specifically; and,
• A design that protects streamside (riparian) areas and wetlands.
  USDA administers the CREP program and provides up to 80 percent of the program’s costs with state and private conservation organizations providing the remaining 20 percent of the costs. Pennsylvania currently has the nation’s largest CREP program, covering 265,000 acres in 59 of the 67 counties, most of which is in the Susquehanna watershed.
  
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