West Virginia Success Story

Local Producers have Incentives to Protect Riparian Areas

Program or Category: EQIP, WHIP, and Partners for Fish and Wildlife

Overview: A cooperative effort led to the completion of three riparian area fencing projects on Harrison County farms this year. Participants entered into Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) contracts with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and also participated in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife (FWS) Partners for Fish and Wildlife program, which is a program to assist private landowners with fish and wildlife habitat restoration. The Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program is a cooperative effort between the landowner, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, WV Division of Natural Resources, Conservation Districts, Trout Unlimited, NRCS and many other partners.

Accomplishments: Riparian area fencing projects were recently completed on three Harrison County farms. Three fence projects were completed by the US FWS fencing crew headquartered out of Elkins, WV. The projects consisted of 10,052 feet of high tensile electric fence. The project protected:

• 1 acres of upland riparian area,
• ½ acre of riparian wetland, and
• 2 miles of streambank.

Project locations on two of the projects were along the West Fork River and the third project was along Rooting Creek.

“Utilizing Farm Bill programs and participating in the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program has given local producers more incentive to protect riparian areas”, stated Jeff Griffith, District Conservationist.

Program Benefits to Landowner: Landowners have several benefits from these projects. A high quality fence is constructed by the fence crew supervised by the US Fish and Wildlife Service/Trout Unlimited. The fence allows for better control of livestock on the farm and allows landowners to keep livestock out of streams and rivers on their property. On two of the farms, the installed fence divided pasture fields in addition to fencing streams and riparian areas. This allows for improved pasture management on the farms. Other benefits to the landowner include improved wildlife habitat on the property and higher quality alternative water sources.

Program Benefits to Community: Benefits to the community include improvement of water quality by the exclusion of livestock from waterways and the improvement of wildlife habitat along streams and rivers.

Contact:
Jeff Griffith, District Conservationist
304-624-9232 x 110
Jeff.Griffith@wv.usda.gov

Mount Clare Service Center-Serving Doddridge and Harrison Counties
Rt. 2, Box 204-D
Mount Clare, WV 26408
Phone 304-624-9232, Fax 304-624-5976
http://www.wv.nrcs.usda.gov/contact/mt_clare.html

John Schmidt, State Coordinator-Partners for Fish and Wildlife, USFWS
Phone 304-636-6586. Fax 304-636-7824
John_Schmidt@fws.gov

Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program
694 Beverly Pike
Elkins, WV 26241
http://ecos.fws.gov/partners/viewContent.do?viewPage=home

	A high quality fence was constructed by the fence crew supervised by the US Fish and Wildlife Service/Trout Unlimited. This FWS photo was taken on 12-21-06, at project completion
	The fence allows for better control of livestock on the farm and allows landowners to keep livestock out of streams and rivers on their property. This photo was taken 4-10-07, 4 months after the project completion.

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