The Greater Spokane River RCPP Project

The Spokane Conservation District and its’ many partners secured $7.7 million from the RCPP program to help fund various conservation efforts across nearly 4 million acres between Washington State and Idaho (see map on back). The partners must match the USDA contribution which brings the total funds available for conservation projects to $15.4 million. The projects will utilize NRCS programs such as EQIP, CSP and others to focus improvements in water quality, soil health, habitat, and to benefit working agricultural and forested lands. Agricultural producers can participate in practices including direct seeding, mulch-till, riparian plantings and buffers, grass filter strips and more. Landowners can also qualify for lease payments for agricultural and forested easements.

Starting in the fall of 2016, the project will implement approximately 150,000 acres of conservation and work with over 300 producers over the next five years. This project will introduce a new practice called the “Commodity Buffer”. This is a buffer that will protect water quality, but will compensate the landowner for the loss of land placed under the program at the same value of the adjacent upland crop. The fully implemented project will save approximately 600,000 tons of soil erosion throughout the Spokane River Basin. Water quality monitoring will be a critical component to the upcoming project. The SCD will implement “edge of field monitoring” to assess the effectiveness and success of on-farm soil and water conservation efforts. This will allow for comparing various types of conservation efforts to more traditional farming techniques.