New Buffer Incentives Peter Weiss has planted filter strips to keep sediment and chemicals out of Sucker Brook, as it flows through his Town of Belgium farm. Jill Hewitt, USDA-NRCS employee, is shown examining the alfalfa and grass vegetation, which was planted last year. Two new incentive payments make it more economically attractive to install riparian buffers, and other practices, through the Conservation Reserve Program. Riparian buffers are strips of protective vegetation, either grass, trees, or both, planted along streams, lakes, or wetlands, which can benefit water quality. The vegetated strips filter sediment and nutrients from surface runoff water before it enters the water bodies.
Buffers are easy to establish and inexpensive to install.
Through CRP, buffers are cost-shared at a rate of 50 percent, and an annual rental payment is paid on the amount of land taken out of production. This is the money paid to landowners each year to compensate for loss of the cropland used up by the buffer strip and for any inconvenience caused by it. This is paid up-front, and is in addition to any other payments. The PIP is an additional payment made after the practice, tree planting, grass seeding, etc., is installed. The PIP is equal to 40 percent of the eligible installation costs.