Regional Conservation Partnership Program: Whatcom County

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: 1

LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT: 42, 21

WRIA: 1

COUNTY: Whatcom County

NRCS INVESTMENT: $1.3M

PROJECT SUMMARY

Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) is a Farm Bill program administered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. RCPP has helped agencies, tribes, and non-governmental organizations maximize partnerships and coordinate natural resource investments. In Whatcom County, many parcels within priority watersheds are at risk of being developed to the degree where neither agriculture nor full ecosystem function can occur. The Whatcom County Working Lands Conserving Watersheds project aims to preserve a long-term, viable agriculture industry by providing landowners financial incentives to keep their farms in production and protecting the watershed from development pressure to maintain a long-term commercially significant agriculture industry.

Key Actions:

Provide technical and cost share assistance to implement water conservation and development practices and assist landowners with installation and maintenance practices along eligible watercourses and wetlands
Implement projects with partner assistance to improve instream fish habitat
Prioritize and accelerate land acquisitions
Protect and improve water quality
Address fish passage barriers

Benefits:

Build confidence in the agricultural community that there will be land for them now and into the future
Supports effective programs for the purchase or transfer of development rights
Aids with the protection of working lands that will result in maintaining ecological function and habitat connectivity while creating opportunities for farmers and landowners to sell environmental services

Project Partners: