Seven dozen land stewardship projects across the nation will share a combined $330 million in federal funding for soil and water conservation on a watershed scale, said the USDA on Monday. “The Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) is public-partnerships working at their best,” said Terry Cosby, acting chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Recipients include a project to make impaired streams “clean and clear by 2040” in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to preserve working lands in the Atlanta area, and rebuilding rangeland resiliency in South Dakota.
The USDA says the RCPP leverages the federal conservation funding with money from the private sector to address on-farm, watershed and regional goals for land stewardship. There are 336 RCPP projects in operation with more than 2,000 partners, said the USDA.