Wetlands Reserve Program and the Upper French Broad River Aquatic Habitat Protection Project
Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy can work with landowners who have wetlands on their property to get them involved in the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), a special program providing technical and financial assistance for wetlands protection.Thanks to its natural endowment of aquatic species, the Upper French Broad River subbasin has been targeted by federal initiatives that aid and encourage the conservation of wetlands and aquatic resources. The Wetlands Reserve Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), identified the subbasin as a "Special Project Area" in 2006. This designation provides added incentives for farmers and landowners within the project area to protect and restore wetlands on their property.
The footprints of development, both urban and agricultural, are leaving ever-wider treads across the Upper French Broad River subbasin. The effects of this development on water quality and aquatic habitat extend from the main stem of the river into its numerous, ecologically important tributaries. For example, populations of the federally endangered Appalachian elktoe persist in the Little River, a major tributary of the French Broad that is a designated critical habitat for the imperiled freshwater mussel. The elktoe has also been identified in the Mills River, another major stream within the Upper French Broad subbasin. Only with large-scale conservation and the support of federal agencies such as NRCS will this unique species continue to inhabit the waters of Henderson and Transylvania counties.
The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) is a nationwide, voluntary program that offers landowners the opportunity to conserve wetlands on their property. Through technical and financial assistance, WRP addresses wetland, wildlife habitat, soil, water, and related natural resource concerns on private lands in an environmentally beneficial and cost-effective manner. Landowners can enroll eligible lands in three ways: (1) permanent easements, (2) 30-year easements, or (3) restoration cost-share agreements. Often, the program offers financial incentives to restore, protect, and enhance wetlands in exchange for retiring marginal land from agriculture. Rather than limiting the program's funding, Congress has chosen to establish an acreage limitation for WRP, allowing the program flexibility in the projects it sponsors.
The designation of the Special Project Area should ensure that NRCS will concentrate more resources in North Carolina's southern Appalachian mountains-a region that has received limited funding in the past due to the small size of the area's farms relative to agricultural operations in the state's piedmont and coastal plain. To augment the NRCS designation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is developing watershed-based projects that leverage other state and federal program dollars to achieve large-scale conservation in priority streams, especially those that contain listed species and designated critical habitat.
Please contact CMLC or NRCS if you are interested in pursuing a wetland conservation project on your land within the Upper French Broad River subbasin. More information on the Wetlands Reserve Program can be found at the program's web page.
Contact info for NRCS:
NRCS Hendersonville Service Center
Bob Twomey, District Conservationist
61 Triple Springs Rd
Hendersonville, NC 28792-9313
(828) 693-1629
(828) 693-5832 (fax)
bob.twomey@nc.usda.gov
NRCS Brevard Program Delivery Point
Bob Twomey, District Conservationist
203 E Morgan Street
Brevard, NC 28712-3742
(828) 884-3230
(828) 884-3231 (fax)
bob.twomey@nc.usda.gov
