To help build back the state’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, DNREC is adding new programs.
The two programs – the Delaware Community Conservation Assistance Program or DeCAP and the Forest Buffer Incentive Program – will pay homeowners and landowners for conservation management.
The goals are to improve water quality and create wildlife habitat in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. One way to improve water quality is reducing stormwater runoff. These programs encourage best management practices to do that.
Dr. Holly Walker is DNREC’s Chesapeake Bay Program Coordinator within the Division of Watershed Stewardship. She explains how DeCAP works.
"It helps provide assistantship with being able to put what we call best management practices,” said Walker. “These best management practices are things that people can do such as planting trees, being able to put in rain gardens, pollinator gardens, conservation landscaping practices."
DeCAP offers homeowners partial reimbursement for installation.
Walker explains how the Forest Buffer Incentive Program works.
"This is targeted more towards landowners, urban environments, but also agricultural environments - so we're talking about farmers as well - and it's to help them put in trees and also cover the cost of maintenance. Because that's usually a big issue that we find is that we can put a tree in but what does it take to actually maintain it so that it lives, that it's productive, and it's successful in its environment," said Walker.
To qualify, properties must be within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and best management practices must be in place for at least five years.
To see if your property is in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, visit delawarewatersheds.org.
