Kansas Water Quality Buffer Initiative

by Ken Sherraden, Natural Resource Specialist,
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS),
Salina, Kansas
and
Buffer Initiative Coordinator State Conservation Commission,
Topeka, Kansas

The Kansas Water Quality Buffer Initiative is administered by the State Conservation Commission (SCC) and is just one of its many programs to help Kansas landowners manage their natural resources. This program is part of the Governor’s Water Quality Initiative to focus on improving the quality of Kansas’ water resources. Governor Graves and the Kansas Legislature started the Buffer Initiative in 1998. Currently eligible areas of the state include all Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) high priority areas in the Kansas Lower Republican River Basin and both the Upper and Lower Arkansas River Basins. The Marais des Cygnes and Missouri River Basins in Kansas are to be included in Fiscal Year 2003; the Neosho, Verdigris, and Walnut River Basins in Fiscal Year 2004; and the Smoky Hill-Saline, Solomon, and Upper Republican River Basins in Fiscal Year 2005.

The program is intended to encourage participation in the federal Continuous Conservation Reserve Program (CCRP). The Kansas Water Quality Buffer Initiative focuses on providing state incentives to Kansas landowners in establishing filter strips and riparian forest buffers adjacent to streams running through their property.

Filter strips are areas of permanent grasses located parallel to and immediately adjacent to the stream. They catch sediment, trap nutrients, and other harmful pollutants in storm water runoff from cropland fields to prevent water pollution.

Riparian forest buffers are areas of trees and shrubs adjacent to a stream that can do the same thing as a filter strip and also provide for streambank protection and lessen the effects of flood water flows during large flood events such as were experienced in 1993. Wide buffers can prevent the scouring or the deposition of large amounts of silt and sand that was seen in 1993 on floodplain cropland fields.

If landowners in high priority TMDL areas enroll lands into the federal CCRP, they are eligible to also enroll those same acres in the SCC buffer program. They will receive an additional 30 percent annual soil rental rate payment for filter strips or an additional 50 percent annual soil rental rate payment for a riparian forest buffer to their federal CCRP payment. The maximum state/federal payment is $150 per acre. The maximum contract period is 15 years. These same acres are also eligible for a property tax reduction as an additional incentive, if the riparian area enrolled is 66 to 180 feet wide.

To date, 2,800 acres have been enrolled in the Kansas Water Quality Buffer Initiative Program and 290 stream miles have been protected. There is sufficient funding in this fiscal year (2002) to enroll another 6,600 acres in the program. New enrollments will protect an additional 680 stream miles.-*

The State Conservation Commission encourages everyone in eligible TMDL high priority areas to contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service or conservation district office located at your local county USDA Service Center to find out how they can get enrolled in the Buffer Initiative program.

For more information about NRCS programs, visit the Kansas NRCS web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

This article is also available in Microsoft Word format.

Kansas Water Quality Buffer Initiative (DOC; 23 KB)

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Last Modified: 09/09/2008