BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- James Stuever, chairman of the Stoddard County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), has presented the Stoddard County Commission with information showing that landowners in the county have received $486,314.70 in 2013 through the State Cost Share Program. The amount included $267,312.72 from an executive order from Gov. Jay Nixon in response to drought conditions in the county.
The funds from the executive order were targeted to help landowners with 13 new livestock wells with pipelines and 12 irrigation wells that had malfunctioned due to drought conditions. The balance of the $486,314.70 was returned to landowners in the county for installing conservation practices on their farms. These funds come directly from a one-tenth of one percent sales tax known as the Soils and Parks Tax.
Stuever noted that the county had also received $486,797.51 in cost share funds over a six-year period for the Bess Slough SALT Project. That project included 18,007 acres and included conservation practices along the water basin from the SWCD offices north of Dexter south to the Stoddard County boundary line.
Stuever pointed to additional money coming to landowners through federal programs. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has 195 active contracts totaling more than $4 million on 25,427 acres through the Environmental Quality Incentive Program and the Conservation Security/Stewardship Program is bringing in $11 million on 104,772 acres in the county. The Mississippi River Basin Initiative is a NRCS program sponsored by the SWCD board that targets specific watersheds in both the larger St. Francis River and Little River watersheds.
Stoddard County received the highest total funding of six counties in the Bootheel for regular cost share and SALT cost share in 2013.
Stoddard County received $422,053.11 in regular cost share and $64,261.59 in SALT cost share for a total of $486,314.70.
Pemiscot County received a total of $350,625.19, New Madrid County received $348,208.50, Scott County received $346,094.26, Dunklin County received $333,426.25 and Mississippi County received $204,074.05.
Stuever thanked the commission for their continued support. The commission budgeted $10,000 to the SWCD for 2014.
"Your support over the past years had made it possible for the SWCD to retain qualified, trained employees which, in turn, improves the services we can provide to the county's agricultural community," said Stuever.