Duck & Elk River Watershed Buffer Initiative

June 18, 2020 Chris Jones

My Tennessee Woods Project

Mission: To engage forest landowners and offer resources to enable them to better maintain healthy woods and wildlife.

The Elk and Duck Rivers Watershed Buffer Initiative came about several years ago. A partnership was formed among several agencies that wanted to make a large scale impact on water quality in both of these watersheds. This group determined that installing riparian forest buffers throughout these watersheds was the best way to approach the objective.

TFA along with other agencies applied for grant funding and were approved to offer financial incentives to private landowners willing to install riparian buffers within these watersheds. To qualify for the offered $1700/acre financial incentive, landowners must plant Riparian Forest Buffers on eligible land. Several state and federal conservation programs are available to eligible landowners, these programs provide opportunity for financial assistance in addition to the $1,700/acre incentive payment. These conservation programs may be used to establish riparian forest buffers and associated practices that may be needed (e.g. exclusion fence, alternative water sources for livestock, etc.). A new funding opportunity specific to the treatment of invasive species in existing riparian forest buffers has also been included to this version of the buffer initiative through USFWS. In the PDF linked below you will see the programs that are currently being offered as of today’s date: 9/25/2018. Other programs may be offered in the future but these are the ones that are currently available.