Farmers and forested property owners in the 171-square-mile Buffalo Creek watershed can apply for federal grant money providing partial reimbursement for planting cover crops, stream bank stabilization and other projects that improve water quality.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania a $1.17 million, five-year grant to help owners of property in the watershed in Butler, Armstrong and Allegheny counties pay for conservation projects.

“We’re tying to protect the water quality and improve the habitat in the Buffalo Creek watershed,” said Danielle Rihel, ASWP Buffalo Creek watershed coordinator.

Providing money to private land owners is necessary to improve water quality in the watershed because 98% of property in the watershed in privately owned, she said.

Qualifying projects include planting cover crops, stream bank stabilization, invasive species management, pollinator planting and tree planting, Rihel said.

Those types of projects are considered best practices to reduce the runoff of soil and commercial fertilizer into Buffalo Creek and its tributaries, she said.

A 2019 ASWP study found a 10.5% increase in creek impairment from 2008.

“The major sources of our impairment are from sources unknown and acid mine drainage,” Rihel said.

She said acid mine drainage was detected in Sarver Run, a tributary to Buffalo Creek. Storm water runoff is also a major problem affecting the watershed, she said.

“We're trying to get Buffalo Creek back to what it was, if not better than it was, in 2008,” Rihel said.

Farmers and forested property owners in the watershed can apply for reimbursement from the $1,169,618 grant through USDA natural resource conservation service. An NRCS field office is located in the USDA field office at the Butler County Farm show grounds on Evans City Road in Connoquenessing Township.

The USDA determines the amount of reimbursement property owners receive on a case-by-case basis, Rihel said.

Two farmers in the watershed have joined the initiative, she said. One changed to no-till planting practices and the other established an alternative water source for his cattle.

Using matching funds, ASWP leveraged the $1.17 million grant to secure $2.24 million in total funding for work to be completed over five years. Matching funds were provided by American Chestnut Foundation, Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Duquesne University, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and the Butler and Armstrong county conservation districts.

“The watershed is pretty diverse. You have agriculture, development, forests. There’s a lot of aspects to that watershed,” said Ryann Harr, Butler County Conservation District water resource specialist.

The program encourages best management practices such as cover crops, manure storage and stream bank buffers, he said.

Cover crops such as clover and radish mixes are planted in fields when cash crops are not growing. They increase the yield of a field by adding nutrients to the soil and reducing the amount of commercial fertilizer a farmer has to buy, he said.