NC Partners Program Going Strong!
The NC Partners Program began in 1996 as a cooperative habitat management program on private lands to benefit waterfowl and other wetland-dependent wildlife, to improve water quality and to provide brood habitat for wood ducks and American black ducks. Well, eight years and 3,500 acres later, NC Partners is proving private lands and waterfowl habitat go hand in hand.
Ducks Unlimited, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the Natural Resources Conservation Service jointly administer the NC Partners Program. Specifically, the objective of the NC Partners Program is work with private landowners to cooperatively develop, restore or enhance wetlands or seasonally-flooded cropland along with appropriate habitat and/or buffer zones. Projects range in size from five acres to several hundred acres. A maximum of $10,000 cost-share per landowner is available. A management agreement is signed that guides the management of the habitat for a minimum of 10 years.
A typical project involves the construction of a low-level, earthen berm and the installation of a flash-board riser water control structure to manage water levels. A typical management prescription would call for the gradual dewatering of the impounded area in spring by removing boards from the flash-board riser to a level that maintains a saturated soil condition. This soil condition will favor the germination of natural, seed-producing, wetland plants. In fall, boards will be added to the flash-board riser to capture rainwater or water will be pumped into the impoundment to gradually flood to a depth of 6-12 inches during winter. Every second or third spring, water levels will be held high through part of the growing season or water levels will be lowered to allow for mechanical disking that is required to setback plant succession and maintain the early-successional, seed-producing, wetland plants important to waterfowl and other wetland-dependent wildlife.
To date, NC Partners Projects have been completed projects in 21 counties. Plans are to expand the program into as many counties as possible with a special emphasis on the Roanoke River watershed in the near future. Because of the unpredictable nature of river flows in recent years, winter habitat conditions needed to support waterfowl are not consistent. The completion of NC Partners projects within this watershed will ensure suitable and consistent habitat to meet the needs of wintering waterfowl in this historically important waterfowl area.
Beginning in July 2004, a new emphasis under the NC Partners program will be placed on a winter water management on private lands. These cost-share funds were made possible through a grant Ducks Unlimited secured as part of the EPA 319 Grant Program. The primary objective is to improve water quality in the Neuse River and Tar-Pamlico watersheds through the reduction of non-point source pollution by implementing winter water/moist-soil/shallow-water management on 500 acres (over three years) on privately-owned agricultural lands through the NC Partners program. This cost-share program is available to private agricultural landowners in Nash, Halifax, Edgecombe, Martin, Pitt, Craven, Pamlico, Washington, Beaufort, Wilson, Wayne, Lenoir, Greene, Jones , and Carteret Counties.
Private landowners can and do provide important habitat for waterfowl and other wetland-dependent and NC Partners is one way this can continue. If the past eight years is any indication of the willingness and effectiveness of private landowners to help waterfowl and other wetland-dependent wildlife, then the NC Partners Program is only going to get STRONGER and STRONGER!
For more information or to apply for a NC Partners project, contact John Stanton, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Manteo Field Office, NC at 252-473-6983 x249 or Craig LeSchack, Ducks Unlimited, Director of Conservation Programs, South Atlantic Field Office, Charleston, SC at 843-745-9127.