The Clearwater River Watershed District (CRWD) can help you establish buffers, whether you live on a lake or a river. Why does the CRWD provide these buffer incentives? Buffers prevent sediment and nutrients from entering rivers, streams, county drainage ditches, and lakes.

Lakeshore residents can buffer their lawns and we will help. The DNR (Department of Natural Resources) provides grant money, the local SWCD (Soil and Water Conservation District) provides technical assistance, and the CRWD will pay a one-time $250 incentive for you to participate in lakescaping on your lakeshore property. While there are certain requirements for the size of the lakescaping buffer, when completed the buffer protects the lake, provides beautiful flowers, and attracts butter-flies and birds. Contact the CRWD or your local SWCD for more details.

If you are a farmer and have a river or lake near your property, the CRWD could possible give you an additional incentive to join federal conservation programs.

1. If you enroll and establish a buffer in the CRP (Conservation Reserve Program), the CRWD will pay you an additional one-time incentive of $200/acre made directly to you when USDA authorizes your contract.
2. Under the seeded buffer incentive option, the producer can establish a buffer that can be harvested for hay. The one-time upfront payment from the CRWD for a three-year period is $350/acre. This seeded buffer is intended for use along rivers, streams, and county ditches.
3. The third option is intended for the corn, soybean, or small grain rotation. The CRWD will pay you $50/acre per year to not till a certain area after harvest. This option is intended for use where soybeans or small grain have been har-vested. The following spring you simply till and plant like you always do.
4. The CRWD is willing to pay you $50/year if you seed a 50’x50’ area around your tile intakes into permanent grass. You will be paid $100/year if the permanent grass area is 100’x100’ and $200/year if the permanent grass buffer around your intake is one-half acre in size. Some producers want to remove their open intakes and replace them with an underground rock inlet. We’ll help you do that too. The one-time payment is $400/intake replacement.
5. The CRWD provides a one-time payment for the establishment of grass waterways installed in the Cedar Lake Subshed. This payment will reimburse the property owner 25 percent of the cost of the construction and seeding costs, based on a plan developed and approved by the Natural Resource Conservation Service. The grass waterway must be maintained for five years.

Rain Gardens

The CRWD provides a one-time $2.50 per square foot incentive for installation and maintenance of a rain garden on lakeshore property. The incentive cannot exceed payment for more than an area equal to 10 percent of the impervious surface on the property. The plan must be pre-approved by the CRWD.