There will be new opportunities for Bradford County farm families to increase conservation practices as a result of an $800,000 grant to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation from the U.S.D.A. Natural Resource Conservation Service.

The grant is part of a $1.6 million initiative by the foundation to reduce agricultural runoff and improve local water quality.

The Bradford County Conservation District will be providing technical assistance to landowners and the Department of Environmental Protection is providing funding through their support of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and a Growing Greener Grant award.

“This Conservation Innovation Grant will build on the work of other state and federal programs to significantly increase the installation of conservation practices across the county,” said CBF Pennsylvania executive director Matt Ehrhart. “At the heart of the initiative is an innovative approach that rewards farmers who install forested stream buffers through CREP (Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program)."

Farmers can earn $1,200 in credits for each acre enrolled in CREP, above and beyond what CREP otherwise pays. These credits can only be used to pay for other needed conservation practices and can enable a farmer to afford a major conservation project where U.S.D.A. pays only 75 percent of costs.

“What makes this endeavor exciting for the Conservation District is that it enables more of what we like to see and do: delving into new or innovative ways of implementing practices that are both efficient and effective, and strengthening the success and opportunities through partnership…to include those hard-working producers that are putting their best foot in order to be good land stewards,” said Tony Liguori, Agriculture Team Leader for the Bradford County Conservation District.

“This program allows cash-tight farmers to earn the last 25 percent of the project’s cost by doing conservation instead of paying cash,” Ehrhart said.

Funding will also be used to pilot new ways to use vegetation and low-tech approaches to manage barnyard runoff. In the past most barnyard runoff management used concrete, steel, and other structural approaches to reduce manure runoff. This pilot project will design and test the use of less expensive methods to control barnyard runoff.

“Thousands of miles of Pennsylvania waterways are impaired as a result of runoff from farms, development, and other sources, which contributes to the dead zones that plague the Chesapeake Bay every summer,” Ehrhart said. “Pennsylvania will soon be required to significantly reduce pollution flowing down to the Chesapeake Bay, and installing conservation practices is the most cost-effective way to reduce that pollution.”

Further details about how interested farmers can apply will be forthcoming, but interested farmers can inquire with either the Bradford County Conservation District or Natural Resources Conservation Service at 570-265-6969. CBF can be reached at 570-746-0316.

For more information on CREP and forested buffers, visit the CBF CREP webpage or call 1-800-941-CREP.