New Program Offers $146 Million to Benefit Western Pa. Farmers

Agriculture is not only Pennsylvania's largest industry, it is also the largest contributor of water pollution. In 2002, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy began laying the groundwork for a program that would address this issue by helping farmers improve water quality and wildlife habitat. Working with 23 local partner organizations, WPC submitted an application to the Governor's office which was, in turn, sent to USDA as a way to further expand the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) into the Ohio River Basin.

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On Monday, March 22, 2004, U. S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman and Governor Ed Rendell met at the Richard McElhancy farm in Hookstown, Beaver County, to announce that $146 million would now become available to help western Pennsylvania farmers and improve Pennsylvania's water quality. The far-reaching impact of this important work will extend to the Gulf of Mexico.

Pennsylvania's Ohio River Basin Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) will seek to enroll 65,000 acres of environmentally sensitive agricultural land. Landowners within 16 counties that are a part of the Ohio River Basin are eligible for the program. Farmers who enroll land in the new program will adopt land management practices that help reduce sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus entering the basin, improving water quality, groundwater quality and wildlife habitat in the Ohio River, the third largest drainage basin into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Ohio River Basin CREP will enable western Pennsylvanians to participate in an innovative program along with the rest of the state. The program will seek to enroll marginal and/or environmentally sensitive agricultural land into an incentive based program that pays landowners to implement agricultural best management practices (BMP's). The incentive rates are based on the erodibility index (EI) - the more marginal the land, the higher the incentive rate.

BMP practices translate into immediate improvements in environmental health that include; reduced sedimentation and nutrient loading in surface and groundwater, improved game and non-game habitat, and protection from one of Pennsylvania's most pressing environmental pressures: development.

An Ohio River Basin CREP will provide innovative solutions to the problems and challenges that face human and natural communities and at the same time offer a tool that will help to protect working landscapes . These are the open fields, farms and forestlands - that if protected - can anchor our region's conservation heritage even deeper. Conservation increases the long-term viability of agriculture, Pennsylvania's largest industry, while improving water quality and wildlife habitat.

By targeting the 16 western Pennsylvania counties, the Ohio River Basin CREP will improve local water quality and help to accomplish a national priority by reducing nutrient loads bound for the Gulf of Mexico where nutrient-induced algae blooms deplete oxygen from the water a leave “dead zones” where few organisms can survive.

Senator Arlen Specter, Congresswoman Melissa Hart, Secretary Wolff and representatives of the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection joined farmers, sportsmen and conservationists at the March 22nd event to learn more about this exciting conservation program.

Click here to voice your support for funding to protect open space, farms and forests, to restore polluted land and water, and to revitalize Pennsylvania's communities and economy!

Many rural communities derive livelihoods from working forest and agriculture lands. These places represent a big portion of the many lands WPC aspires to protect but simply cannot buy. We are working with local communities in rural areas to promote and sustain these livelihoods in ways that net positive impacts on land, water and biological resource protection. Read more about our Sustainable Countrysides Program.