Smart Ecology through the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program
The Pennsylvania Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a voluntary program that pays landowners to discontinue agriculture on environmentally sensitive land. The program also provides financial incentives for landowners to restore these areas by planting trees and permanent grass filter strips. In addition to enhancing water quality by filtering sediment and nutrients from runoff water, the new vegetation also provides shelter, nesting areas and food for many wildlife species.
Although the program is available to all landowners in Chester and Lancaster Counties with highly erodible land (e.g. steep slopes) and land along streams, its primary emphasis is on land in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
The annual payments are based on soil quality and can range from $105 to $180 per acre. The program also includes one-time payments - over and above the annual payments - for adopting approved conservation practices. Examples of one-time payments include $100 to $150 per acre (100% of cost) for installing riparian forest buffers, grassed waterways and filter strips. Payments of up to 140% of cost are offered for enhanced buffers (35 to 50 feet wide), waterways and filter strips. This amount may be increased to 165% of costs for riparian forest buffers that are 50 to 180 feet wide.
CREP applicants must agree to establish and maintain the agreed-upon conservation practices under a 10 to 15 year contract. Eligible lands must have been cropped for two of the previous five years and be physically and legally capable of being cropped. Marginal pastureland is also eligible, provided that it is suitable for use as a riparian forest buffer. Landowners may also enroll eligible acreage into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) for general or continuous protection of environmentally sensitive lands.
Interested parties should contact CREP Habitat Specialist Mike Shaw at (610) 696-0398, extension 113, or John Goodall, the Brandywine Conservancy's Western Area Manager, at (610) 857-4369.
Top of page | Return to Stewardship Perspectives Main page
For more information send email to: emc@brandywine.org, call 610-388-2700, or write to Environmental Management Center, Brandywine Conservancy
P.O. Box 141, Chadds Ford, PA 19317
© 2002 Brandywine Conservancy