The Starke County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) once again offered a one-time $500 incentive payment to those land users who signed up for new filter strips of more than one acre. Those incentives were available to the first 10 new filter strips signed.
This incentive payment is in addition to all other rental payments and incentives normally paid on new Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) filter strip enrollments through the USDA Farm Service Agency. Nine landowners took advantage of the incentive this year.
The District continues to apply for Clean Water Indiana (CWI) grants to provide services to the county. The District, along with Marshall County SWCD, hired an independent contractor to work with landowners in the Robbins Ditch Watershed to promote conservation programs available to them. We also are working with the LaPorte County SWCD and have hired an irrigation technician to provide irrigation scheduling services for landowners.