Farmers can save money and protect our water through CREP

by Don Audette, Spring 2003

Farmers may make use of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program to protect streams, ponds, and wetlands from pollution by cattle and crops. The Commonwealth of Virginia and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have set aside $91 million for CREP.

Any river, stream, wetland, or pond, if left alone, reverts to its natural state over time. Trees, shrubs, grasses, and other vegetation soon cover the edges. Birds and animals appreciate such a setting, as the vegetation provides shade from the heat of the day and protective cover from predators. Shade also keeps the nearby water cool during hot summer weather.

Creatures use such protected water edges, known as riparian buffers, as highways to move from place to place. In addition, by letting water edges revert to their natural state, the health of the water itself improves, runoff and erosion is controlled better, and water insects and amphibians thrive at the water's edge, as do fish.

Mowing to the edge of a stream, pond, or wetland to incorporate it into a lawn, meadow, or manicured farmland is not good for that habitat. Raising row crops (such as corn, strawberries, or apples), or letting cattle graze to the edge, or into the water, is also bad for wildlife habitat. Considerable erosion occurs, and owners of such property will see their topsoil wash away year after year, never to be recovered. It takes hundreds of years to build an inch of topsoil.

Hardwood seedlings are planted in protective tubes in the stream buffer.
Photo courtesy Martin Johnson.

What can farmers do to protect their land investment so its value is not washed away? How can they ensure that the quality of the water passing through such property helps someone downstream, rather than bringing bad news? How can a buffer zone be established along a water's edge to protect and enhance bird and animal life?

The Commonwealth of Virginia and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have set aside $91 million, under the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), to reduce the amount of sediment and nutrients in runoff from agricultural land and to improve wildlife habitat. Funds are still available, as the program is now at only 33 percent of its target acreage [as of Spring 2003]. The funds are to be used to develop streamside buffers and to restore wetlands. CREP offers rental payments to farmers who voluntarily remove streamside or wetland areas from agricultural production for 10 or 15 years, and the program reimburses most of the buffering costs.

As of Spring 2003, ten owners of large properties in Rappahannock County participate in the program. Any landowner who has land adjacent to any Rappahannock County river, stream, intermittent stream, spring, seep, wetland, pond, or sinkhole, or who has former wetlands capable of being restored, can participate. However, the land must have had row crops planted on it for at least two of the last five years (with pasture or hay in rotation), or it must be currently used to graze cattle or some other animal.

Photo courtesy Martin Johnson.

CREP-buffered areas are calculated as follows:

Minimum width: A minimum of 35 feet from the top of a stream bank, or 30 percent of a floodplain, whichever is greater, must be devoted to a CREP buffer.

Maximum width: The maximum average buffer width is 300 feet for land in a floodplain. Thirty-five feet of upland can be included as long as the total width does not exceed 300 feet. The maximum width outside the floodplain is 100 feet. All buffers must be at least 35 feet wide.

The financial incentives are significant:

Rental payment: CREP provides $80 per acre per year for 10 or 15 years for streamside or wetland areas in the county that are currently used for grazing or used for row crops for at least the last five years.
Sign-Up Incentive Payment (SIP): Those who sign up receive $10 per acre per year on the basis of a 10- or 15-year contract. Payment is made at the time the CREP agreement is signed.
Additional one-time payment for optional conservation easement: A one-time payment of $500 per acre is available for permanent conservation easements of 100 feet from stream banks.
Payment for CREP buffering: CREP will reimburse eligible costs of installing trees, fences, alternative water sources, and other buffering components needed for stream bank protection, or to restore wetlands—50 percent federal cost share; 25 percent state cost share (not to exceed $200 per acre); and 40 percent practice incentive payment, payable when all practices are completed.

A buffer zone is created by installing fencing at least 35 feet out from the protected stream, separating the riparian zone from the bordering agricultural land.
Photo courtesy Martin Johnson.

As an example, assume you have 80 acres of CREP-protected area. At $80 per acre per year, you would be paid $6,400 per year for 10 or 15 years. A 15-year contract would be worth $96,000. The SIP would amount to $10 ×80 acres ×15 years, resulting in a one-time payment of $12,000. If you enrolled the 80 acres in an easement program for permanent open space, at $500 per acre, you would get an additional one-time payment of $40,000. In addition, let's say it will cost you an average of $900 per acre to establish buffers at least 100 feet wide. For 80 acres, that is $72,000. If CREP reimburses you to the fullest extent allowed (100 percent of the cost), you will be paid $72,000. Another profit aspect is that in 15 years you might be able to selectively harvest any hardwood trees you planted within the buffer zone.

For more information on the CREP program, contact Joe Thompson at the Culpeper Office of the United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), 540-825-4200, extension 108. Information is also available via the USDA website: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/dafp/cepd/crep.htm

Improved buffer zones along rivers, streams, wetlands, or pond edges will contribute to the overall health and clarity of the upper Rappahannock River watershed. Counties further downstream may also be more likely to support our comprehensive plan's purpose of preserving the rural and scenic nature of Rappahannock County.