 Partnerships
CREP Provides Backdrop for Productive and Enthusiastic Conservation Partnerships in Kosciusko County
The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) provided the backdrop for showcasing outstanding conservation partnerships for the Kosciusko County SWCD.
 Left: Kosciusko County SWCD's Lorena Kline, Water Quality Technician
CREP is a partnership between the USDA and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. These two agencies provide financial incentives for landowners applying conservation practices to their land, as well as technical assistance in the planning an installation of the practices. The Nature Conservancy also provides additional incentives for participants who put eligible land in a 10-year contract extension program or a permanent easement. The program also is made possible with help from a Clean Water Indiana grant. CREP fits into Kosciusko County SWCD’s business plan by helping to meet the following District goals:
- By 2010, water quality will be protected with filter strips or riparian buffers along at least 30% of identified rivers, lakes and streams, and there will be an additional 500 acres of tree plantings.
 In Kosciusko County, this program promotes the installation of conservation buffers and wetland restoration within the Tippecanoe River Watershed. Technical assistance is headquartered in Kosciusko County, but service also is provided to Fulton and Marshall Counties. Eligible practices under Indiana’s CREP are Native Grasses, Hardwood Trees, Wildlife Habitat, Grassed Filter Strip, Riparian Buffers, Wetland Restoration, and Bottomland Timber.
This fits perfectly with the Kosciusko County SWCD’s mission statement to help people conserve and enhance natural resources of present and future generations and there is no question that initiatives such as CREP are vital to the county’s conservation efforts. CREP allows landowners to discover what kinds of conservation practices best fit their land, as well as provides an opportunity for them to learn about other conservation programs that are available.
 Left: The two-stage ditch is an inno-vative, relatively new method of con-structing drainage ditches to create benches that imitate natural stream floodplains where flood water spreads out and releases sediment and nutrients that would otherwise be carried downstream.
 The Stoneburner-Puntney Ditch in Kosciusko was identified as a major contributor of sediment and nutrients to the Barbee chain of lakes and to Lake Tippecanoe downstream. An 800 foot section of two-stage ditch was constructed where two tributaries joined. A 30 foot wide filter strip also was seeded along the two-stage ditch. The Nature Conservancy assisted by providing the engineering design for the project.
The Tippecanoe Watershed Foundation assisted with the information and education phase of the project, which included a public field day to demonstrate the two- stage ditch, as well as water monitoring efforts to determine success. The Kosciusko Drainage Board assisted by allowing the  Kosciusko County SWCD to construct the project on the board's drainage easement and by helping supervise the construction. Monitoring is provided by the University of Notre Dame and Commonwealth Biomonitoring.
Right: This monitoring equipment at the two-stage ditch site is providing valuable information to improve water quality in the Tippecanoe River and its tributaries. The site is sponored by the Kosciusko County SWCD, NRCS and FSA; The Nature Conservancy; Creighton Brother Farms; the Kosciusko County Surveyor and Drainage Board; and local citizens Michael Long, Scott and Sall Kauffman and Edward Anoinides. The goal is to improve the function of agricultural drainage ditches . . . reduce sedimentation, lower maintenance costs, and improve water quality!
 Touring with the Kosciusko County SWCD were: Beth Mason, NACD; Jennifer Boyle, IASWCD; Darci Zolman, SWCD Program Administrator; Jill Reinhart, Assistant State Conservationist, Communications, NRCS.
Second row: DeeDee Sigler, IASWCD; Jane Hardisty, State Conservationist, NRCS; Lorena Kline, SWCD Water Quality Technician; Colleen and Sherm Bryant, SWCD Supervisor.
Roger Kult, Assistant State Conservationist, Operations, NRCS; Jim Lake, ISDA District Support Specialist; Homer Ousley, Creighton Brothers Farm Manager; Sam St. Clair, District Conservationist, NRCS; Kimberly Neumann, Area Conservationist, NRCS; Linda Hixson, SWCD Conservation Program Technician; Kevin Shide, NRCS Soil Conservationist (yellow shirt); Chad Watts, TNC; and Jamie Scott, SWCD Supervisor Chair. >>Click here for photo
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