USDA
Seeks New Partnerships to Safeguard, Restore Wetland Ecosystems
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[November 24, 2020]
The United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) recently announced up to $30 million is available
in technical and financial assistance through the Wetland Reserve
Enhancement Partnership (WREP) to help conservation partners protect
and restore critical wetlands on agricultural lands in Illinois.
Restored wetlands help improve water quality downstream, enhance
wildlife habitat, reduce impacts from flooding, and provide
recreational benefits.
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“This partnership enhances the locally driven process to better
address critical wetland functions that progress beyond
localities,” said Kevin Norton, acting Chief of USDA’s Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). “WREP works with other
NRCS landscape-level conservation efforts to coordinate the
delivery of conservation assistance to producers in targeted
areas that yield the most impacts for accelerated benefits
nationally and regionally. Continuing to leverage these
partnerships helps us continue the important work with producers
to help recover the health of wetland ecosystems on working
lands.”
Eligible conservation partners in Illinois will work through
WREP to voluntarily execute high priority wetland protection,
restoration, and enhancement activities on eligible agriculture
lands. WREP enables effective integration of wetland restoration
on working agricultural landscapes, providing meaningful
benefits to farmers who enroll in the program and to the
communities where the wetlands exist.
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NRCS will review partners’ project proposals and evaluate
priority resource concerns, objectives, costs, and expected
outcomes for each project and rank proposals based on the
criteria set forth in the ranking worksheet on the WREP webpage.
Proposals should be emailed to NRCS State Conservationist
Ivan Dozier at ivan.dozier@usda.gov by November 30, 2020.
About the Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership
Funding will be provided through the Wetland Reserve Enhancement
Partnership (WREP), which is part of the Agricultural
Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), a Farm Bill conservation
program. Through WREP, states, local units of governments,
non-governmental organizations, and other entities collaborate
with NRCS through cooperative and partnership agreements.
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These partners work with private landowners who
voluntarily enroll eligible land into easements to protect, restore,
and enhance wetlands on their properties. WREP partners are required
to contribute a financial or technical assistance fund match.
Wetland Reserve Easements enable landowners to
successfully reduce impacts from flooding, recharge groundwater,
enhance and protect wildlife habitat, and provide outdoor
recreational and educational opportunities. Healthy wetlands,
including those protected and restored through WREP, contribute to
USDA’s Agriculture Innovation Agenda of reducing the environmental
footprint of U.S. agriculture in half by 2050. Earlier this year,
Secretary Perdue announced the department-wide initiative to align
resources, programs, and research to position American agriculture
to better meet future global demands.
Partners benefit from WREP by targeting outreach and enrollment
priorities supported by NRCS, including places impacted by natural
disasters. Easements enable landowners to adopt a variety of
conservation practices that improve the function and condition of
wetlands.
[Paige Buck
Public Affairs Officer
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service]
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