LONDON, OH - Governor Bob Taft today announced increased provisions and enhancements to the Lake Erie Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), a voluntary program that uses financial incentives to encourage farmers and landowners in 27 northwest Ohio counties to protect their land by establishing grass buffer strips, tree plantings and wetland conservation practices along the lake’s tributary streams.
The Lake Erie CREP now provides an estimated $220 million in conservation funding through a federal, state and local partnership. This partnership encourages landowners to improve water quality by reducing runoff of soil sediment, nutrients and pesticides. Establishing stream buffer strips also helps lower water temperatures, increase dissolved oxygen and provide additional habitat for fish and wildlife.
Recent changes and improvements to the Lake Erie CREP aim to make this conservation program even more successful. Program changes will offer farmers and landowners in the Lake Erie watershed more flexibility in contract lengths and additional financial incentives for planting trees. Some highly erodible land, not previously eligible for the program, will now be included. And a special enhancement for landowners in the Tiffin and Blanchard river watersheds will reward those individuals who work together to establish contiguous riparian corridors along major streams and tributaries.
“To date, more than $16 million in state and local funds have been invested in this important Lake Erie conservation program,” Taft said. “These new incentives will encourage even greater participation, benefiting both the lake and those farmers and other landowners who are working to protect it.”
The Lake Erie CREP was Ohio’s first CREP, originating in the spring of 2000. Since then more than 5,500 northwest Ohio farmers and landowners have enrolled and established more than 26,000 acres of conservation practices in the lake’s watershed. These conservation practices protect an estimated 2,400 miles of streams and tributaries in the watershed. Additional CREP programs have been established in recent years for the Upper Big Walnut Creek and the Scioto River watersheds.
Counties included in the new Lake Erie CREP are: Allen, Ashland, Auglaize, Crawford, Defiance, Erie, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Huron, Lucas, Lorain, Marion, Medina, Mercer, Ottawa, Paulding, Putnam, Richland, Sandusky, Seneca, Shelby, Van Wert, Williams, Wood and Wyandot.
Farmers and others owning land adjacent to streams and watercourses in the 27-county region are encouraged to contact their local soil and water conservation district for additional program information. Information is also available by contacting the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Soil & Water Conservation at 614-264-6610; on the Internet at ohiodnr.com, or from the Farm Service Agency or Natural Resources Conservation Service, located at local U.S. Department of Agriculture Service Centers.