Environmental Defenses Center for Conservation Incentives aims to improve Lake Erie water quality by significantly reducing Maumee watershed agricultural runoff. The project enlists farmers, state and federal agencies, for-profit entities and non-profit groups as partners, and encompasses northwestern Ohio, eastern Indiana and southern Michigan. The WLEB project utilizes tools like the Lake Erie Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) ? a USDA program administered by the Farm Services Agency, and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) which provides financial and technical assistance to farmers for implementing conservation practices in the field. Through CREP, farmers volunteering to help improve water quality by taking ecologically sensitive land along rivers and streams out of production and planting them to grass and tree buffers can get financial and technical help. Key to program delivery are the on-the-ground experts under contract with EDF ? soil and water supervisors, retired NRCS employees, and Certified Crop Advisors ? who have instant credibility with farmers and understand the ins and outs of these sometimes complex programs. For maximum participation and ecological benefits, the project team is focusing much of its effort on the Tiffin and the Blanchard watersheds in Ohio.

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