The Friends of Cross Lake is partnering with the County of Aroostook, the St. John Valley Soil & Water Conservation District and others in a conservation project featuring cover crops.
The group invites all farmers in the Cross Lake, Daigle and Dickey Brook watersheds with the opportunity to participate in a grant with reimbursement for implementing the conservation practices of multispecies cover and/or single or winter cover crops in 2025.
The grant will reimburse multispecies cover at $92.51 per acre on approximately 480 acres, and single or winter cover at $74 an acre on approximately 800 acres, for a total grant amount available for these practices of $103,600. An approximate 40 percent match is required and all practices must be implemented by Sept. 30, 2025.
This grant is phase two of a multiphase effort, until at least 2031, to restore Cross Lake’s water quality to meet state standards, according to Cheryl St. Peter, project manager for Friends of Cross Lake.
The new effort complements the 10-year United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service National Water Quality Initiative project in the Dickey and Daigle Brook and Cross Lake watersheds.
The first phase of this effort, a phase one 319 grant, ended Dec. 31, 2024, and reimbursed watershed farmers for conservation crop rotation at $111 an acre, multispecies cover at $45 an acre, and winter cover at $31.20 an acre. Watershed producers implemented these practices on approximately 850 acres of cultivated cropland in 2023 and 2024, and were reimbursed by the grant.
To find out more about participating in this phase two grant, contact Henok Wehib at the district at 207-834-3311 or hwehibsjvswcd@gmail.com, visit the district office at 139 Market St. in Fort Kent, or contact Davis Archer at Northern Tilth, davis@northerntilth.com, 207-338-5500 or 401-439-5106.
To learn more about Friends of Cross Lake and its projects, contact St. Peter at countyee@fairpoint.net, or visit friendsofcrosslake.org/ or find the organization on Facebook.
