GENTRY — Approximately 50 people attended an informational meeting held Feb. 9 at the Gentry Public Library to learn how local landowners can participate in the Arkansas Conservation Enhancement Program.

Under the program the United States Department of Agriculture and the state of Arkansas are seeking to enroll 15,000 acres of marginal pasture land and cropland in the Illinois River Watershed - in Benton and Washington counties - in 14- to 15-year Conservation Reserve Program contracts to restore riparian grassland and forest buffers along the Illinois River and its tributaries. The program goals include providing wildlife habitat; filtering runoff water, reducing sediment, pesticides and other pollutants deposited in waterways; stabilizing stream banks; and shading stream channels to improve aquatic habitat.

In order for landowners to qualify for enrollment in the program, they must enroll a minimum of one tenth of an acre with a minimum average width of 50 feet and a maximum of 300 feet. Lands set aside must be removed from haying and production and be planted in native grasses or trees. Landowners will not be permitted to use the land for grazing or hay cutting. If livestock are kept in adjacent lands, the set-aside acres must be fenced off, with the possibility of alternative water sources or water access ways being created for livestock.

Land must be kept in the program for 14 to 15 years. Landowners will be paid rental payments for their land under Farm Service Agency CRP directives and the CREP agreement. If landowners withdraw from program early, payments received must be refunded with interest.

Additional incentives will also be paid, including a one-time $100-per-acre sign-on incentive. Cost share assistance - 50 percent of reimbursable costs and a one-time 40 percent of reimbursable costs - is also offered to landowners to install and maintain approved conservation practices and for approved management activities.

The state of Arkansas will pay an additional lump sum of $200 per acre to landowners who enroll in the program. The state will also allow eligible participants to utilize a riparian and wetland restoration tax credit for personal expenses incurred as a result of participation in CREP.

Total costs of the Illinois Watershed CREP, according to a fact sheet distributed at the meeting, is estimated at $25 million, with the state of Arkansas contributing $6 million of that amount.

Under the program, representatives from the FSA, the Arkansas Forestry Commission and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will provide assistance to landowners in establishing conservation plans for their enrolled properties.

The program is completely voluntary. No easements will be taken. Unlike other CRP programs, landowners are not required to be farmers to participate in CREP.

Speaking at the meeting were Ted Collins, FSA county executive director for Washington and Benton counties; Greg Watkins, conservation agronomist for the National Resource Conservation Service; Ruth Ann Chapman, private lands biologist for the AGFC; and George Stowe-Rains, county ranger with the Arkansas Forestry Commission.

Additional meetings are being planned to explain the program to local landowners. More information is available from the Benton and Washington County FSA offices - Benton County FSA, 273-2622; Washington County, 521-4520, ext. 2.

News, Pages 3 on 02/17/2010