Department of Agriculture invests over $325 million into 42 farming projects
(WWAY) — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced an investment of over $325 million in 42 projects to help farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners boost their operations and conserve natural resources across the nation through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP).
“Iowa’s popular Cattle and Conservation Working Lands Program demonstrates that we can improve water quality, rebuild the U.S. cattle herd and make the most of every acre of our valuable farmland,” said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. “The Iowa Working Lands Program started out as a pilot project in Taylor County in 2016, and has since grown into a very successful conservation program in Iowa, while creating a model for other states.”
Through RCPP, the USDA works with partners to fund solutions to natural resource challenges on agricultural land. In Iowa, Secretary Rollins met with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to announce a project across western and central Iowa that integrates cover crops, forage and biomass plantings, watering systems, and other practices to support producers and working lands health.
The project will result in planting over 300,000 acres of cover crops and delivering reductions of roughly 3.3 million pounds of nitrogen, 336,000 pounds of phosphorus, and 1 million tons of soil loss, while strengthening grazing systems and producer profitability.
Southwest Georgia’s Longleaf Landscape project, led by Tall Timbers Research, Inc., which will protect at least 6,000 acres of rural working forest lands through voluntary conservation easements across 16 counties in southwest Georgia.
The Texas Coastal Prairie Working Lands Partnership, led by Texas Agricultural Land Trust, will work toward permanently conserving the Texas Gulf Coast’s remaining coastal tallgrass prairie through voluntary, producer-driven agricultural conservation easements.
The Nooksack Watershed Restoration Phase 2 project, led by Lummi Nation and the Nooksack Indian Tribe, will work to revitalize critical salmon habitats in Washington’s Nooksack River watershed. Building on previous successes, this initiative will restore natural river processes by installing engineered logjams, enhancing floodplain and wetland habitats, and planting riparian trees across 256 acres.
In the past year, the National Resources Conservation Service has improved RCPP by streamlining partnership agreement processes and increasing flexibilities to ensure the program works more effectively for conservation partners and America’s farmers and ranchers.
