Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Calms Wind Erosion in North Central Montana

Carl and Janice Mattson, who farm near Chester, Montana, said they had never seen anything like it.

“I’ve been on this farm for 30 years, and I’ve never seen the dirt blow like it did last summer,” Carl said. “The only comparison I heard folks make was to the dust storms of the 30s.”

In late May 2002, the U.S. Drought Monitor gave north central Montana a D4 designation, exceptional drought, which represents the most severe drought rating.

“The farmers here were distraught about all of the wind erosion that was occurring and felt hopeless,” said Dawn Wickum, district conservationist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Liberty County. “We had to do something.”

NRCS made $750,000 available for targeted conservation assistance to dryland farmers in 11 north central Montana counties through its Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The goal was to rapidly establish or maintain ground cover to protect the soil and lessen or prevent dust storms through no-till practices or planting a cover crop.

Wickum said the response was enormous. “We had people lined up out the door,” she said. In a few days, farmers had enrolled approximately 81,000 acres into the program obligating $760,000. With 77,000 acres under contract for no-till and the remaining acres planted to a cover crop, NRCS estimated that 1.16 million tons of soil were saved.

Carl and Janice were a part of the group who signed up for the expedited EQIP assistance. But the true benefits of the program extended beyond their own farmland.

“The incentive offered by EQIP was enough for farmers to give it a try,” Janice said. “It kept people from going into their fields with their equipment and causing more erosion.”

NRCS offered $9 per acre for no-till, which covered the cost of at least one application of herbicide, eliminating the need for tillage.

“I’ve never seen a government program come into Liberty County and do as much good in one year as this program did,” Carl said. “It made a huge difference; you could really see the results quickly.”

The neighboring county, Hill County, also saw increased interest in no-till. According to Deana Grabofsky, NRCS district conservationist at Havre, Hill County farmers offered to enroll another 2,500 acres into EQIP for no-till practices in 2003. That, she said, is probably the result of the success of the program last year in reducing wind erosion.

Last Modified: 05/25/2005