This week, the USDA re-opened enrollment for farmers to put pollution buffers on their land -- but Delaware won't be adding new participants.
The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, or CREP, pays farmers to put upgrades like new trees on unused agricultural lands.
As we previously reported, Delaware didn't replenish its 25-year-old program this year, meaning the state can't access new federal money for it, either.
That means they'll have trouble planting enough new trees to meet federal and state watershed clean-up goals -- from the Inland Bays, to the St. Jones River, to the Chesapeake, according to DNREC's program administrator Bob Palmer
"The CREP is helping out with all those -- we have riparian buffer recommendations in all watershed plans," said Palmer.
But Palmer says current program users are safe:
"Those that are in the program currently were paid at the beginning of the contract from the state of Delaware. The federal government pays their portion on an annual basis," said Palmer.
And while Palmer adds there's no hope of getting state money to add new land this cycle, he says early budget hearings have left him cautiously optimistic that the legislature will replenish the CREP for next year.
In the meantime, DNREC will start looking at other ways to meet watershed clean-up goals -- and avoid EPA funding cuts -- next week.
