[District Letterhead]
NEWS RELEASEContact: [Name]
For Immediate Release [Phone Number]
[Date] [Email Address]
Stream Buffers Offer Farmers Bottom-Line Benefits
(Your City, VA) – Conventional agricultural wisdom holds that when you remove land from production, you remove dollars from the bottom line. With help from their local Soil and Water Conservation District, however, Virginia farmers are finding that it pays to create a grassy or forested buffer between farmland and adjoining waterways.
That’s because riparian, or streamside, buffers have both environmental and economic benefits. While they reduce nonpoint source pollution by decreasing soil erosion and filtering pollutants, buffers also can generate income from a variety of sources and improve farm productivity.
“Some producers may not realize that recent increases in funding have made many buffers financially attractive,” said [Name, Title] of [Name] Soil and Water Conservation District. “Cost-share programs can reimburse the costs of buffer installation and maintenance with incentive payments that range from 50 percent to as much as 115 percent when the buffer qualifies for both Virginia and federal or federal/state conservation incentive programs.”
Farmers can earn additional buffer income by selling hunting and fishing rights, by harvesting timber or alternative crops like nursery stock after the buffer contract expires, and by placing a conservation easement on the buffer. A permanent easement created through the Virginia Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, for example, can qualify farmers and landownersfor a one-time payment of $1,000 per acre. What’s more, many localities apply a lower property tax rate to acreage in conservation easements.
There are production benefits, too. Buffers can reduce streambank erosion, improve field efficiency and remove marginal land from production. When cattle farmers combine buffers with stream fencing and provide alternative sources of water for their herd, better animal health results.
Riparian buffers are one of five sets of priority agricultural best management practices promoted by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, which administers the Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program. The Commonwealth’s 47 Soil and Water Conservation Districts carry out the Virginia Cost-Share Program at the local level.
District staff can help farmers apply for many different cost-share funding programs to help implement riparian buffer best management practices. They also can identify other conservation programs for which agricultural operations of all kinds can qualify.
For more information, contact [First Name, Last Name] at [Name] Soil and Water Conservation District, [phone number] or [email address].
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