The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service announced that landowners have until Friday, Feb. 20 to request assistance through an initiative to improve water quality in three Missouri watersheds.
State Conservationist J.R. Flores said that NRCS will be providing financial and technical assistance to help farmers, ranchers and forestland owners in the three watersheds install conservation practices that manage nutrients, pathogens and sediments. Funding comes through the agency’s National Water Quality Initiative.
The watersheds include Lower Little Medicine (Grundy and Sullivan counties in northern Missouri, Upper Troublesome (Knox and Lewis counties in northeastern Missouri) and Opossum Creek-North Fork Spring River (Jasper and Barton counties in southwestern Missouri).
Eligible producers will receive assistance for nutrient management, cover crops, conservation cropping systems, filter strips, terraces and, in some cases, edge-of-field water quality monitoring.
“This initiative provides an opportunity for farmers in the project areas to do even more to improve the quality of their local water sources,” Flores said. “It’s also a good opportunity for farmers to try a conservation practice that maybe they haven’t tried before, like cover crops.”
Flores said NRCS will work with landowners with approved applications to determine how alternative conservation systems they are considering will impact water quality improvement. Additionally, state water quality agencies and other partners will do in-stream and watershed-level monitoring to track water quality improvements in the project watersheds.
NRCS accepts applications for financial assistance on a continuous basis, but applications for funding consideration during this fiscal year must be received by Feb. 20.
For more information about NRCS’ programs, initiatives and services in Missouri, persons can visit the website at www.mo.nrcs.usda.gov.
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