Palouse Conservation Grants

I'm Bob Larson. Funding for incentive-based conservation practices in one Eastern Washington region has tripled ... allowing 250% more volunteer farmers and ranchers to participate.

Jake Clements with the Palouse Watershed Conservation District says it's all about trying to shift the focus of landowners ...

JAKE CLEMENTS ... "That's what we're really trying to do is get these farmers and landowners and producers to think long-term because a lot of these guys, I mean they've been stuck in this mind-set of ya know trying to farm as much ground as they can and trying to get as much production out of that ground as quick as they can. And we're trying to get these guys to think a little bit more long-term, especially when it comes to, if you're limited on ground, how you can make the most productivity out of your ground. So if you think long-term and especially on the conservation and soil health side of things, you can produce a lot more if you focus on some different aspects of your ground."

Clements says they're getting a lot of interest in the program ...

JAKE CLEMENTS ... "Actually it's a very wide variety of landowners and producers. We've got everywhere from livestock producers who only have a few head to livestock producers who have a couple hundred. And then we have farmers that are very urban all the way to guys that are farming up to 10,000 acres."

Clements says 61 applicants applied for financial assistance for a wide variety of projects from riparian buffers to offsite water and fencing for livestock.

They hope to fund about 25 projects this year, compared to just 9 a year ago.