Gov. Heineman Announces First Signings
of EQIP and CREP Contracts
(Lincoln, NE) Gov. Dave Heineman today announced that Roger Patterson, director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, has signed the first Nebraska Ground and Surface Water Special Incentives contract for the Environmental Quality Enhancement Program (EQIP) and the first Water Use Contract for the Nebraska Platte-Republican Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Both programs are designed to address water supply problems in the Platte and Republican River basins.
“I am pleased to see our irrigators considering the options available at the state level for reasonable, cost-effective conservation and land management,” Gov. Heineman said. “Our farmers value the choice to irrigate. Only moisture will solve our long-term water supply problems, but programs like these offer our producers a financially feasible option to help conserve water.”
The Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Natural Resources Districts and Irrigation Districts in the Republican River basin are partnering on an innovative practice as part of the Conservation Service-administered Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
The Nebraska Ground and Surface Water Special Incentives practice (EQIP) is targeted at specific areas in the Republican River basin because of water supply issues in that basin and the need to meet the requirements of the Republican River Compact settlement with Kansas and Colorado. Eligible landowners must have at least 50 percent of their enrolled land in the “quick response area,” approximately 2.5 miles on each side of the Republican River main stem and its major tributaries. Those who voluntarily enroll acres in the program cannot irrigate the enrolled acres, but may continue to raise dry-land crops during the four-year commitment.
State funds administered by the Department of Natural Resources will provide a one-time EQIP incentive payment of $100 per acre this year to help promote the program. The Natural Resources Conservation Service will pay enrollees $150 per acre during of the first three years of the contract. The additional state funds will result in landowners or operators receiving a total of $250 for the four-year period. For 2005, NRCS has allocated $1.5 million to the EQIP program, and Nebraska has agreed to provide $1 million to enroll a total of 10,000 acres. Those acres were enrolled with initial sign-ups.
Steve Chick, NRCS State Conservationist said, “The NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program can target natural resource issues in Nebraska. Attaching state funds to the federal program makes the incentive better to encourage farmers to reduce irrigated acres in the Republican River basin, and it’s working well.”
The goal of the Nebraska Platte-Republican CREP is to convert 100,000 acres of irrigated land to grass or similar habitat cover, thereby significantly reducing the amount of irrigation water consumption, improving fish and wildlife habitat and preventing chemicals and sediment from entering the waterways of the state. In exchange the landowner or operator will receive an annual payment, for a period of 10 or 15 years, that would approximate current irrigation rental rates. Annual payments will be made by the Farm Services Agency of the USDA.
Those enrolling acres would also receive financial assistance for the cost of establishing the habitat cover. The Farm Services Agency and the state Department of Natural Resources administer the program and each pay half of the cost of habitat establishment. The Department of Natural Resources has enough funding to enroll 15,000 acres. The sign-up of additional acres will depend on appropriations for the fiscal year starting July 1.
Patterson said, “These programs are not permanent solutions to meeting the water supply issues in these areas, but are an important piece. The programs will help soften the impact on individual irrigators dealing with the impacts of a multi-year drought.”
