Green Horizons
Volume 18, Number 2Spring 2014
Cost-share practices available for landowners
The Mo. Department of Natural Resources Soil and Water Conservation Program has several cost-share practices available to Missouri landowners to protect their woodlands and forests from soil erosion. Cost-share is provided as an incentive for landowners to protect forests and woodland soil from erosion and protect or improve water quality through proper management. Soil and Water Conservation Districts are located in each county in the state. Landowners should contact their local office to determine if funding is available to assist with the following practices relating to the Woodland Erosion Resource Concern category.
C100 Timber Harvest Plan
The purpose of C100 Timber Harvest Plan practice is to assist landowners with the proper design of best management practices such as logging roads and other conservation measures that minimize impacts to soil and water during timber harvest.
Timber harvests can result in disruption of soil by clearing land for equipment access and removal of trees from the site. Development of a timber harvest plan gives landowners a tool to work with loggers before a harvest to ensure components of the plan are established that are needed to mitigate harvest impacts.
Some of the best management practices include: avoiding the use of equipment or vehicles within 100 feet of the top of a stream bank to protect riparian areas, mapping harvest locations, installing stream crossings and forest roads, and ensuring landing areas are greater than 200 feet from streams, ponds, lakes and so on.
Incentive payments are $20/acre for first 75 acres, then $15/acre for each additional acre. Limits on the practice are $3,000 per farm or cooperator per year with a $9,000 total eligibility. The local soil and water district office in partnership with the Mo. Department of Conservation (MDC) will provide technical assistance for this practice. MDC staff will evaluate and certify the practice to ensure best management practices in the timber harvest plan have been followed.