$1.5 MILLION GRANT TO ELECTRIC POWER RESEARCH INSTITUTE (EPRI) ADVANCES FORESTRY AS A NUTRIENT REDUCTION STRATEGY IN OHIO RIVER BASIN

WASHINGTON, D.C. – November 9, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) awarded a $1.5 million grant to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to integrate forestry as a best management practice on farmland and reduce nutrient runoff into waterways in the Ohio River Basin. The project has important implications for water quality and drinking water in the Ohio River Basin and potentially across the country.

The Endowment’s grant will offer farmers and private landowners another option in addition to the agricultural conservation practices already in use through the program on farms in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. Forested buffers are an effective way to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus from entering waterways. Forests also offer the promise of increased income from hunting leases, timber products, and carbon sequestration. Increasing forests in this area will also provide important benefits for wildlife.

“Successful development of water quality trading markets would benefit landowners and watersheds across the county where nutrient runoff is an important issue, such as the Gulf of Mexico,’ noted Peter Stangel, Senior Vice President at the Endowment. “Supporting EPRI’s leadership in this project will accelerate understanding of what it takes to create a successful market.”

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