Kentucky receives Two Chiefs' Award for CREP Partnership Project

Updated 05/19/2008

The Kentucky Green River (CREP) is a unique federal/state/local partnership that focuses buffer practices on streams and sinkhole basins that feed the Green River/Mammoth Cave Ecosystem.

The Green River is the most biologically diverse and rich branch of the Ohio River system. The greatest aquatic diversity occurs in a 100-mile section of unhindered river that flows from the Green River Reservoir dam through Mammoth Cave National Park (the world’s longest and most diverse cave system) in south central Kentucky.

Partners are: USDA Farm Service Agency, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Kentucky Division of Conservation, Mammoth Cave National Park, The Nature Conservancy Kentucky, Kentucky Soil and Water Conservation Commission, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Kentucky Division of Forestry, Kentucky Division of Water, Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

The Green River CREP started in the fall of 2001. While the program was successful during its initial years, the CREP partners submitted an amendment to the program in late 2006. The amendment included expanding 1,000 foot Riparian Buffers to include 3rd order or larger streams and also utilized CP-29 (Marginal Pastureland Habitat Buffers) to allow 1,000 foot buffers on sinkholes/karst basins. Also, partners expanded the CREP region downstream on the Green River to include the Barren River and Nolin Rivers up to the spillways of their respective reservoirs. This amendment became official early in 2007 and is phenomenally successful. Since this spring, enrollment in CREP has expanded to 20,000 acres---with another 56,000 acres in progress. This is truly a water quality and habitat success story!

For more information please contact:  Danny Hughes, KY NRCS CREP Coordinator at Danny.Hughes@ky.usda.gov or 859-224-7392

Links: 

USDA Farm Service Agency - www.fsa.usda.gov/ky  

Kentucky Division of Conservation - www.conservation.ky.gov/programs/crep

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