Habitat Restoration
When it comes to Farm Bill conservation, images of wildlife habitats like pheasant-filled fields, deer stands in woodland borders, and prairie potholes for waterfowl may come to mind. Or maybe you envision stocked farm ponds full of fish like bluegills and bass. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership has created an informative overview explaining how the Farm Bill provides funding for vital conservation programs that benefit wildlife.
Ask Congress for Help
I support a Farm Bill with a strong conservation title. Farm Bill conservation programs can support rural economies and farm families, stabilize streambanks, reduce erosion and flooding, maintain or increase instream flows, and ultimately improve coldwater habitat for trout and salmon.
Through Farm Bill funding, Trout Unlimited works nationally with agencies like the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and willing farmers, ranchers, and landowners to provide the technical, financial, and project management resources to accomplish goals. Those goals are landscape-driven and range from conserving water and increasing flows in arid western watersheds to stabilizing riparian corridors and reducing flood risk while improving native trout habitat in midwestern, eastern, and southern states.
NRCS programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) provide technical assistance and funding to willing landowners to integrate conservation into their working lands, with many EQIP projects improving downstream water quality and coldwater fish habitat for the whole watershed. The Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) leverages public-private partnerships to implement local and regional priorities into large-scale on-the-ground results for land, people and fish.
Farm Bill conservation programs are an effective tool for the type of work TU is completing in coordination with NRCS and working landowners throughout the country. Farm Bill conservation programs support not just the farm and ranch families that receive them, but the rural communities and economies that they’re a part of and coldwater trout and salmon habitat throughout the whole watershed.
Reauthorizing the Farm Bill with a strong conservation title in 2024 will support these programs, these families, and these fish.