DES MOINES – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey today announced that the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has $360,000 available to help repair conservation practices damaged by storm events during the 2011 crop year.
The funding is available in sixty counties that were granted disaster designation by the United States Department of Agriculture. The designation applies twenty seven Iowa counties that were affected by severe storms, excessive rain and flooding during the 2011 crop year; plus thirty-three contiguous counties are also covered by the designation.
“Much of Iowa was impacted by severe weather this summer, and as a result damage to conservation practices was also widespread,” Northey said. “I encourage farmers with practices that need repair to work with their local Soil and Water Conservation District office. It’s important these practices are repaired so they continue keeping the soil on the farm and out of our lakes and rivers.”
The maximum cost share rate for repairing practices will be 75 percent. The deadline to apply for the repair funding is December 30, 2011 and all repairs must be complete by June 30, 2012.
Eligible Soil and Water Conservation District offices will begin offering funding to repair conservation practices in these sixty counties immediately on a first come first serve basis.
The $360,000 is the funding still remaining from the $6.5 million the Department received in 2009 from the state bonding plan to support conservation efforts.
The 27 counties included in this declaration are: Clarke, Davis, Decatur, Fremont, Henry, Jefferson, Jones, Keokuk, Lee, Linn, Louisa, Lucas, Mahaska, Marshall, Mills, Monona, Monroe, Montgomery, Page, Polk, Tama, Taylor, Van Buren, Wapello, Washington, Wayne and Woodbury.
The additional 33 counties were named as contiguous disaster counties. Those counties are: Adams, Appanoose, Benton, Black Hawk, Boone, Buchanan, Cass, Cedar, Cherokee, Clinton, Crawford, Dallas, Delaware, Des Moines, Dubuque, Grundy, Hardin, Harrison, Ida, Iowa, Jackson, Jasper, Johnson, Madison, Marion, Muscatine, Plymouth, Pottawattamie, Poweshiek, Ringgold, Story, Union and Warren.
