A new landowner incentive program that strives to improve water quality and wildlife habitat in the Big Sioux River (BSR) Watershed is now accepting applications. Known as the Big Sioux River Watershed Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), the program provides funding to landowners through a partnership between the USDA and the State of South Dakota. “We have talked about a Big Sioux River Watershed CREP in South Dakota for probably at least a half dozen years,” said Tom Kirschenmann, the Director of Wildlife for Game, Fish & Parks, at an Interim Appropriations Committee meeting on November 10, 2022. A program such as CREP is needed in the watershed “because of water quality issues and the lack of habitat over on the eastern side of the state.”

The Big Sioux River Watershed CREP is modeled after the highly successful James River Watershed CREP, which has enrolled almost 80,000 acres since 2009. The USDA and GFP hope to enroll up to 25,000 acres of crop and pastureland in the BSR Watershed into CREP, with the goals of improving water quality, reducing soil erosion, and enhancing wildlife habitat. Additional goals include increasing pheasant and duck populations, and creating more public hunting and fishing access in the watershed.

To qualify for CREP, the land must be located in the BSR Watershed and have been farmed for four out of six years between 2012 and 2017. Participants must enroll their land in 10-year to 15-year Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts, which require cropland and pastureland to be restored to native grasses, trees, or wetlands. Kirschenmann noted that there is one major difference between CREP and CRP. “In South Dakota, if you enroll in CREP, public access is a requirement.” Land enrolled in CREP must be open to public hunting and fishing access, with a minimum public access area of 40 acres.

A program with some similarities to CREP, known as the Riparian Buffer Initiative (RBI), was first rolled out by the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) in the fall of 2021. RBI is also a cost-based rental program that incentivizes turning working lands into riparian buffer strips to improve water quality. However, at the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee meeting on January 19, 2023, DANR Secretary Hunter Roberts reported that “we did not sign up any landowners as we worked through this.” The general feedback was, “we’re not paying enough to really move the needle.”

With CREP, DANR hopes to mitigate some of these funding issues. Producers enrolled in CREP will receive higher incentive payments than they would on land enrolled solely in RBI or CRP. All CREP participants will receive annual rental payments from the USDA, as well as payments from GFP, for allowing public hunting and fishing access on the land. There is a one-time signing bonus incentive for new land enrolled in CRP. Additionally, “DANR will offer CRP buffer incentives on buffers enrolled on CRP and CREP if they meet the RBI program requirements. If you have a 60-acre parcel and an acre or two of that meets the RBI requirement, we will pay a 120 percent incentive on that on top of the CRP and CREP rental rate,” said Secretary Roberts. “We see it as a win-win for the CREP community and CRP. It puts more dollars on the table for those producers to incentivize that change.”

With the added financial incentives available through CREP, FBSR is hopeful that more landowners will enroll in this new program. An additional 25,000 acres placed in conservation will help to make significant strides in improving water quality in the BSR watershed. If you or someone you know is interested in signing up for the CREP program, contact your local USDA service center Farm Service Agency office.