The Conservation Reserve Program

in McKinley County

Funded by the USDA Farm Service Agency, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) provides technical and financial assistance to eligible private land owners to address soil, water, and related natural resource concerns on their lands in an environmentally beneficial and cost effective manner.  McKinley County SWCD will work any eligible private landowner to assist in projects that would limit soil erosion and sedimentation, switch from environmentally sensitive acreage to more sustainable growth such as native vegetation, wildlife plantings, trees, or riparian buffers.  The CRP will also implement, in conjunction with the McKinley SWCD noxious weeds removal program, a comprehensive noxious weeds plan where applicable.

All interested parties must sign on for a period of either 10 or 15 years in order to obtain assistance, as this demonstrates commitment to conservation practices.  The CRP has a rolling application deadline, and will accept applications at the USDA Service Center office in Gallup.

Rock Bridges in Cottonwood Creek, as part of CRP efforts

Current CRP's in McKinley County

Bass Ranch

Beginning in Spring of 2003, the Bass Ranch property just northwest of Bluewater Lake, NM fenced out their livestock from the riverbanks of Cottonwood Creek.  Subsequent native plantings of cottonwood and willow trees were added to the river channel along with a series of rock bridges to encourage some sedimentation necessary for the encouragement of these saplings.  By the end of July and early August of 2003, native vegetation had made a dramatic recovery to the area.  Monitoring continues on Cottonwood Creek with photo monitoring, rain gauging, and continual inspection of the saplings.  As with all CRP initiatives in McKinley county, the main duty of site maintenance is the continual exclusion of domestic livestock to the site areas.

Church Rock

A new initiative with CRP is currently underway in the checkerboard land areas of the Church Rock Chapter of the Navajo Nation.  The CRP is the cornerstone to the Rio Puerco Restoration Project- an effort to restore the north fork of the Rio Puerco from west of Gallup east through Iyanbito Chapter.  The Rio Puerco Restoration Project will also employ volunteers from Ft. Wingate High School science classes to help install and maintain the Church Rock site.  These students will not only help serve their community in a vital way, but also gain valuable internship experience as they work side by side with SWCD state scientists.