Western Pennsylvania Conservancy's e-CONSERVE Quarterly Newsletter

Targeting a leading pollution source in Pennsylvania

Pollution that cannot be traced back to a single origin is called non-point source pollution. At the turn of the 21st century, Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection listed sediment, by volume, as the commonwealth's leading pollutant. During 2005, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy implemented a targeted approach to address sediment pollution in streams caused by agriculture. The WPC increased our outreach to farmers and agriculture operators to address conservation challenges associated with agriculture throughout the region.

By the end of 2005, WPC staff:

installed more than 80 miles of streambank fencing,
facilitated the use of more than 10,000 acres of seasonal cover crops on erosion-prone cropland,
planted hundreds of acres of warm season grasses to protect soil, and
aided landowners in finding conservation practices that work for both the environment and the landowner.

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a government-funded agricultural program that rewards farmers for practicing conservation measures. The WPC first laid the groundwork for this program in 2002 by bringing together farm, environmental and sportsmen organizations, and then submitting the necessary paperwork. CREP is western Pennsylvania's largest agriculture conservation program and has the potential to restore and protect 65,000 acres of vital grassland habitat, streamside buffers, and wetlands all within Pennsylvania's Ohio River watershed. In 2005, the WPC provided outreach and technical support in an effort to get the word out to eligible farmers.

To date, the WPC has been instrumental in restoring more than 4,000 CREP-eligible acres of grassland and streamside habitat through CREP within priority conservation landscapes. The CREP initiative is another way the WPC is working with landowners and local leaders to ensure a conservation legacy on the landscape.