Is there any doubt that more houses, shopping malls, golf courses, highways, and businesses have been built in the last several years than during any other period in Delaware’s history?  At the rate land is being developed, the need for environmentally sensitive land management is increasingly evident.  If you own or manage land and would like to be paid by the government to employ best management practices, read on.

One sign that the quality of our local environment has declined is the condition of the lakes, ponds and rivers that drain into local rivers and streams, such as the Appoquinmink River.  This river and its tributaries are so overloaded with phosphorus and nitrogen that they violate federal pollution laws.  In 1997, a judge ordered the State of Delaware to clean up these and other impaired waters around the state.  So far, progress has been too slow.  In August 2000, the state helped organize a community group to work on a Pollution Control Strategy for the Appoquinimink Watershed.  This group, the Appoquinimink Tributary Action Team (ATAT), is working towards a plan that everyone will support.   One part of the plan involves publicizing existing opportunities for improving land management in our watershed.

In the fall of 2002, Marianne Hardesty, a representative of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), visited the ATAT to explain the many government programs available to land owners and land managers in Delaware. The table we've included with this article gives you a brief look at several of those available to you.

There are three main categories of assistance: cost-sharing, technical, and payment.  In cost-sharing, the cost of implementing a conservation practice is paid for, in full or in part, by the government.  In technical assistance, an expert gives a landowner free advice.  Finally, in some programs, the government not only cover the costs of implementing a conservation practice but also makes payments to compensate the landowner for income lost from acreage taken out of production.  Payments may also be made to encourage enrollment of land in the program.

Obtaining immediate financial rewards and protecting long-term environmental health sometimes sit like opposing devil and angel on your shoulders, but these programs make it easy to take good care of our environment and get paid for doing so.  If more land in Delaware is enrolled in such programs, water flowing through our communities will be more like it was before many people lived here and developed industries in our region.  It will be more like the law requires, and more like it is meant to be.