KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently awarded $1.5 billion in 92 partnership projects to advance conservation and climate-smart agriculture through its Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), with the Duck River Watershed Society receiving $20 million.

Per USDA officials, RCPP is a partner-driven approach to conservation that funds solutions to natural resource challenges on agricultural land. Partners will provide $968 million in contributions to amplify the impact of the federal investment. Selected RCPP projects will help farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners adopt and expand voluntary, locally led conservation strategies to enhance natural resources while tackling the climate crisis. The investment was made with funding available through the Farm Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction Act is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America Agenda and the largest investment in climate action and conservation in world history, which has enabled USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to boost funding for RCPP. In total, the Inflation Reduction Act provides $19.5 billion to support USDA’s oversubscribed conservation programs, including $4.95 billion for RCPP.

“The Regional Conservation Partnership Program is an example of public-private partnership at its best,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Thanks to the boost in funding from the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act we’re able to invest even more in this popular and important program and increase our conservation impact across the country, supporting our nation’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners while at the same time protecting our natural resources for the future.”

“America’s working lands and forests are crucial in our fight against the climate crisis—from sequestering carbon pollution to absorbing the impact of storms and floods,” said John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy. “Today’s awards make sure that the people who know those landscapes best—farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners—have the resources they need to lead this important work.”

The $20 million will go into Duck River Watershed Society’s project titled “Stream Restoration in the Duck River Watershed: Protecting and Enhancing Aquatic Habitat for America’s Most Biodiverse River,” per USDA. According to the description of the project from USDA, the project aims to enhance and restore the quality and connectivity of aquatic and riparian habitats in the Duck River Watershed in Tennessee through natural channel design stream restoration and riparian buffer establishment using Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) conservation practices.

The Duck River Watershed Society wasn’t the only Tennessee organization to receive funding from the USDA. Agricenter International, a Shelby County-based nonprofit organization, was awarded $24,887,189 for its project “Middle Tennessee Field and Forest Partnership,” which will aim to broaden engagement of producers and landowners to address resource and habitat concerns for wildlife and water quality in two of state’s most significant habitats – the Duck River watershed and the Western Highland Rim, per the USDA award summary.

The MidSouth Development District, which works in Tennessee, as well as Arkansas and Mississippi, will receive $21,250,000 to fund its “MidSouth Regional Conservation Partnership Program.” The project’s aim is to enhance ecosystem health by establishing diverse habitats on the edges of production sites across six counties, supporting ecosystem services that reduce synthetic inputs and improve water and soil quality. This will increase biodiversity, providing natural pest control and pollination, thus promoting sustainable agriculture, according to the USDA award summary.

Tennessee will also be a partnering state in three other awards. These include a $17 million multi-state effort to reduce sediment and nutrient runoff by protecting wetlands and floodplains for Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Mississippi; a $16.4 million multi-state effort to improve soil health and fertility, reduce soil erosion and improve water and air quality, and assist underserved farmers Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia; and a $24.6 million multi-state project to promote adoption of agroforestry and reforestation on farms to decrease sediment and nutrient erosion, sequester carbon on farms and bolster bird habitats for Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri.

For more information, visit www.usda.gov.