USDA Unites wtih Partners to Improve Water Quality in Lake Champlain

From the USDA:

Posted by Jason Weller, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Chief, on January 22, 2015 at 1:00 PM

The Vergennes-Panton Water District along Lake Champlain in Vermont was able to upgrade the city's water treatment plant with support from USDA. The Department is working through several agencies to help improve water quality in the lake. USDA Photo by Bob Nichols.

In recent years, blue-green algae blooms have frequented Lake Champlain, impairing the lake’s water quality. Through a new partnership with USDA, nearly 20 organizations in the area will work together with farmers and ranchers to help improve water quality of the lake and reduce algae blooms.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food & Markets and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources are uniting partners to engage and support farmers and forest landowners who use voluntary conservation practices that lead to cleaner water. Called the “Accelerated Implementation of Agricultural and Forestry Conservation Practices in the Lake Champlain Watershed of Vermont and New York,” this project will provide outreach to farmers throughout the watershed and help connect them with innovative conservation solutions for their land.

Last week, I visited this natural treasure and met with the local partners who are making this effort possible. Lake Champlain provides habitat for more than 300 bird species and 80 fish species, holds 6.8 trillion gallons of water, and provides drinking water for more than 200,000 people. The lake provides critical habitat as well as serves as an economic driver from recreation.

But a high level of nutrients, like phosphorous, has jeopardized the lake’s health. Agriculture is one contributor of phosphorous, and this project will enable farmers and forest landowners to take proactive steps to reduce or prevent runoff of phosphorous.

Lake Champlain is the sixth largest body of fresh water in the United States, topped in size only by the five Great Lakes. It contains 6.8 trillion gallons of water and is a drinking water source for nearly 200,000 people. Water quality is the lake is negatively impacted by phosphorus pollution.

Studies show that most of the phosphorous entering the lake comes from a relatively small footprint of land. Together, these local partners working with USDA, will target resources to areas most in need, what we call critical source areas, such as steep lands and lands prone to flooding. This project will target outreach and implementation of conservation practices to those areas.

This project is one of more than 100 unveiled last week as part of the first cadre of projects funded by the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). Created by the 2014 Farm Bill, RCPP is a partner-driven, locally-led approach to conservation. It offers new opportunities for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to harness innovation, welcome new partners to the conservation mission, and demonstrate the value and efficacy of voluntary, private lands conservation to a national audience.

With RCPP, partners are in the driver’s seat with technical and financial help from NRCS.

RCPP empowers local organizations and communities to demonstrate the importance of locally-led action and benefit from strong public-private partnerships in delivering solutions to natural resource challenges.

RCPP also attracts additional resources and allows for the expansion of private lands conservation efforts.  In this round of projects, the agency is providing more than $370 million to 100-plus projects in all 50 states and leveraging at least $400 million in partner contributions.

In Vermont, NRCS plans to invest $16 million in the project, and the partners will match with $20.5 million in contributions, including funding and technical assistance.

The heart of RCPP is about empowering local organizations to design and deliver solutions that benefit natural resources where they live and work. This project in Vermont and New York brings together a variety of partners from the local and state levels, including soil and water conservation districts, agricultural associations, government agencies and non-profit organizations. We’re proud of the leadership these local organizations are providing to execute this program, and we look forward to the benefits to come.

Working together, we can ensure we have a cleaner, healthier Lake Champlain for future generations.

NRCS Chief Jason Weller (at podium) joined leaders and partners from Vermont and New York to announce a new project that will work to improve water quality in Lake Champlain. USDA Photo.

RCPP to Help Improve Water Quality in Lake Erie, Other American Waterbodies

From USDA:

Posted by Krysta Harden, Agriculture Deputy Secretary, on January 16, 2015 at 3:00 PM

The Maumee River (shown here) flows into the Maumee Bay of Lake Erie at the city of Toledo, OH. USDA photo.

In the first wave of funding through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), 70 percent of the 100-plus projects focused on providing for clean and abundant water. Of these many projects, one in the Great Lakes region is poised to do an excellent job in engaging and empowering an army of partners.  The Tri-State Western Lake Erie Basin Phosphorous Reduction Initiative is a multi-state project that brings together more than 40 partnering organizations from Michigan, Ohio and Indiana to reduce the runoff of phosphorous into the waterways in the western basin of Lake Erie.

The lake has suffered from nutrient pollution for years, including last year’s water crisis that left 400,000 residents in the Toledo, Ohio area without water to drink, bathe or cook. Today, Michigan Senator and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Debbie Stabenow and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown visited with the many diverse organizations making this project possible. From providing clean drinking water to employing thousands of people in the tourism industry, the health of Lake Erie affects nearly every aspect of life in the region.

With RCPP, partners are in the driver’s seat with technical and financial help from NRCS.  State, local and regional partners join with agricultural producers to achieve specific, measurable natural resource results.

In this case, a large group of partners told us why more conservation work was needed in the western basin of Lake Erie – and how they could do it in an innovative way that leveraged additional funds and brought a wide variety of partners to the table. This project plans to target funding to watersheds most in need, meaning the streams and rivers that have a large impact on water quality in the lake.

This new investment in the western Lake Erie watershed builds on 10 years of work done by the Western Lake Erie Basin Partnership, a group of 14 federal, state, and local government agencies and non-profit organizations.  Many of these partners helped develop the RCPP proposal and will contribute both their cash and in-kind services to the project.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service administers RCPP, which directs funding to state-level and multi-state projects as well as projects in critical conservation areas. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack selected eight critical conservation areas, including the Great Lakes Region. It’s so important that we protect the water quality of Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes.

America’s Great Lakes — Erie, Superior, Michigan, Huron and Ontario — hold 21 percent of the world’s surface fresh water and host habitat for a variety of fish and wildlife species of concern. They provide drinking water for more than 40 million people and economic benefits from fishing and recreation. The Great Lakes Region is also a major agricultural area, with more than 55 million acres of land under production.

With RCPP and other Farm Bill programs, USDA is working to accelerate conservation work on private lands. We look forward to the contributions this project will make to the region as well as other efforts by farmers in the regions.

Secretary's Column: New Approach to Conservation Creates New Partnerships, New Jobs

From USDA:

Posted by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, on January 14, 2015 at 3:40 PM

This graphic outlines the effectiveness of the RCPP program, leveraging Federal and partner support. Click to enlarge.

When USDA unveiled the new Regional Conservation Partnership Program last year, I said that this effort would pioneer a new era of conservation. As of today, the program is doing just that—leveraging an unprecedented three-quarters-of-a-billion dollar investment in projects to preserve clean land and water and create new jobs across the country.

One of the innovative programs in the 2014 Farm Bill, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program brings a wide variety of new partners together—from private businesses, to universities, to local and Tribal governments, to non-profit organizations and more—to develop their own action plans and to pledge their own resources to the project. Local organizations are in the driver’s seat, setting priorities and developing conservation projects that make sense for their communities.

The response to this new approach to conservation projects was overwhelming. Earlier this year, when local partnerships submitted their plans to USDA, they requested more than six times the amount of available funding in the first round. This incredible response is a call to action and it shows how much need there is for a program like RCPP.

From the first round of applications, we selected 115 of the most effective, most innovative projects from across the country to receive more than $370 million in the first round funding. Local partners will invest over $400 million more, for a total funding impact of nearly $800 million.

Leveraging our own resources by encouraging private investment in conservation means we can do more and have a greater impact than we ever could on our own. Since 2009, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has worked with 750,000 producers and landowners to implement conservation activities on 325 million acres. The Regional Conservation Partnership Program helps us to extend the impact of our resources even further. Over the next five years, USDA plans to invest a total of $1.2 billion through the program, leveraging an estimated $2.4 billion for conservation in total with the matching investment from partnering organizations.

Today’s announcement is just the beginning. Keeping the momentum going, we will soon take proposals for new projects. Another round of funding will be announced later this year, and USDA is working with new applicants to develop partnership plans that will enable even more worthy projects to be completed in the future. To learn more about the Regional Conservation Partnership Program and to see a list of this year’s projects, visit www.nrcs.usda.gov. For more information on today’s announcement, you can listen to a media call with Secretary Vilsack and NRCS Chief Jason Weller.

Location map for RCPP projects. Click to enlarge.