Image Credit: Tom Doody
Streamside buffers on farmland are a centerpiece of efforts to improve water quality and achieve Chesapeake Bay restoration goals. They have additional environmental benefits such as carbon sequestration and habitat for terrestrial and aquatic wildlife. Maryland and other states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed have set a goal of 70% tree canopy along streams by 2025. Yet only 58% of the streams in Maryland have tree canopy, according to a recent study. This shortfall exists despite programs that offer significant incentives to farmland owners who plant forest or grass buffers, notably the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and Maryland’s Conservation Buffer Initiative.
A Hughes Center-funded study led by AREC professors David Newburn and Erik Lichtenberg aims to provide analysis of the incentive program features that are most effective in encouraging rural landowners in Maryland to plant streamside buffers. The two AREC professors and their graduate students will use survey data of farmland owners throughout Maryland that includes farm-level information on current streamside buffers and landowners’ responsiveness to existing and proposed alternative incentive program designs. The alternative programs vary in terms of the contract length (5 to 15 years), upfront one-time bonus payments, recurring annual payments, and other features.
The economic analysis of farm-level likelihood of participation will be combined with site-specific estimates of nutrient and sediment reductions using the Chesapeake Bay Program Watershed model and other information. Additionally, the project plans to explore whether voluntary carbon offset markets that pay farmland owners for sequestering carbon in forest buffers—a potential extra revenue source—would significantly increase landowner participation in existing incentive programs like CREP.
The goal of the project is to improve the effectiveness of buffer incentive programs by providing insights into what kinds of incentive structures work best to increase buffer installation, especially among the types of farmland owners who have been under-represented in existing agricultural conservation programs. The research team plans to work with a wide range of agencies and resource professionals to perform policy-relevant analysis based on the goals of the stakeholders across the state and Chesapeake Bay region.
