NRCS Approves Proposal to Enhance Missouri Wetlands

COLUMBIA, MO, May 12, 2006 – More than 1,700 acres of wetlands will be restored or enhanced in Missouri through a partnership between the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).

Missouri is one of five states selected for funding through NRCS’ Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Program in Fiscal Year 2007. Missouri’s $238,000 proposal was jointly submitted by Missouri NRCS and MDC. The funds will be used to enhance or restore wetlands on 35 public and private acres in southeastern Missouri; 478 acres on private land in north-central Missouri; 929 acres at Diana Bend Conservation Area in central Missouri; and 285 acres at Marion Bottom Conservation Area, also in central Missouri.

MDC wetland biologists will design the plans in cooperation with private landowners. MDC also will manage the contracts necessary to complete the restoration and enhancement work.

“The focus of this partnership project is to address the critical need for advanced wetland restoration techniques on some land previously enrolled in the Wetlands Reserve Program,” said Harold Deckerd, NRCS assistant state conservationist.

Bill White, supervisor of MDC’s private land program, said the restorations will include landscape hydrology techniques to restore and enhance hydrophytic flora, remnant plant communities and bottomland hardwood blocks.

“The restoration efforts will provide critical seasonal habitats for 29 vertebrates, numerous plants, and three invertebrates, all of which are listed as threatened or endangered species or species of conservation concern in Missouri,” White said.

Missouri’s wetlands include some of its most diverse and productive ecosystems. Nearly 87 percent of the state’s original 4.8 million wetland acres were drained. But since the Wetlands Reserve Program began in 1992, Missouri has restored more than 107,000 acres through the program.

 The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) pays landowners to convert marginal–use land to shallow wetland areas and to maintain them. In exchange for the funding, the landowners sign easements that ensure that the land will remain wetlands.

For more information about WRP, see http://www.mo.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/wrp/wrp.html or contact the NRCS office serving your county. Look in the phone book under “U.S. Government, Department of Agriculture,” or click here.

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