Secretary and Governor Sign Revised Agreement

DATE POSTED: 05/08/2009

Secretary and Governor Sign Revised Agreement
By Keith Tackett, Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack joined Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and others at a private Arbor Day ceremony April 24 at a farm in Westminster, Md. They met to sign Maryland's revised Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP).

The revision substantially increases incentives for installing riparian forest buffers on farmland, which is a goal of the Forest Service’s Chesapeake Bay Program.

Maryland was the first state to join CREP when it was established in 1997. It is a voluntary federal program that allows agricultural landowners to receive annual rental payments and cost-share assistance to establish long-term, water quality and wildlife practices on eligible farmland. More than a decade later, most states have adopted CREP.

A 100-foot-wide forest buffer has the capacity to trap 95% of sediment and remove 78-80 % of the nutrients from surface run-off.

About 100 people were in attendance including Maryland's Secretaries of Agriculture and Natural Resources, State Forester Steve Koehn, and Sally Claggett, U.S. Forest Service Liaison to the Chesapeake Bay Program.

Secretary and Governor Sign Revised Agreement By Keith Tackett, Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry

Secretary and Governor Sign Revised Agreement
By Keith Tackett, Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry