The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a voluntary program available through the USDA’s Farm Service Agency which offers financial incentives to private landowners to enhance and protect water quality for drinking by filtering runoff, stabilizing streambanks and shading stream channels. Additional goals are to improve wildlife habitat and preserve the diversity of natural resources by increasing the amount, quality and connectivity of protected riparian corridors. The CREP program is a federal program administered by each state.
Gina Levesque of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission oversees the program in Oklahoma. She outlined the program for Ozarks Farm & Neighbor. The following rules apply to all states. “The CREP program offers landowners a sign up bonus of $100/acre. The length of contract is a minimum of 10 years to a maximum of 15 years. Rental rates per acre are based on the average rental rate for marginal pasture in the applicable area varying from county to county. Both perennial and intermittent streams apply. Perennial streams are streams where water is visible. Intermittent streams are not always visible and are sometimes not visible at all. Costs for fencing and water source relocation are shared by the program.”
Fencing is required to protect disturbance of stream banks. Fencing of the buffer can be as little as 35 feet to 300 feet or more determined by the natural flood plain. FSA determines the cost of adding fences and pays half the cost. After the fencing is installed, FSA pays an additional 40 percent of the cost as a practice incentive payment. FSA also helps pay the cost of providing an alternative source of water, which can include piping and a tank or tanks.
Levesque explained the program is intended for pastureland with little or no trees. “The 319 Program through the Environmental Protection Agency provides programs for wooded areas,” she said. “Conservation programs require the entire length of waterways be protected to ensure the quality of water all along the course of the stream.”
Tony Franco of the Arkansas Farm Service Agency said, “We are lucky here in Arkansas because we have so many other agencies supporting what we are doing to protect our water resources. We have the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, the Arkansas Forestry Commission, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Walton Foundation, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and state tax incentives.”
Producers should know water courses running through each state are different resulting in each state and county programs being different. To determine if your state and county are involved in CREP and if your land qualifies, contact your local county FSA office.
