CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A year of steady rains led to muddy fields across West Virginia, and the wet conditions caused bare ground on farmland and made it difficult for farmers to make and feed hay. Now, farmers with damaged livestock feeding areas can apply for emergency assistance to help revegetate their land with grasses.
The State Conservation Committee on Tuesday approved an Emergency Assistance for Revegetation program that will allow farmers on affected lands to apply to their local conservation district for $60 per acre to reseed feeding areas. There is a cap of up to 50 acres per farm.
The window of time the applications will be accepted is fairly short, so interested farmers should contact the conservation district in their area. Conservation specialists and technicians with the local conservation district or the West Virginia Conservation Agency will visit the farm, take photos and complete a site visit form to document conditions.
Applications will be approved based upon site visits and available funding.
Cooperators who receive emergency assistance must follow reseeding guidelines provided by the West Virginia University Extension Service and/or the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service’s forage and biomass planting standards.
Cooperators will receive payment after the revegetation practice has been verified, receipts and documentation have been submitted, appropriate documents are signed and the local conservation district board approves the payment. Reseeding that a farmer has already done on his own is not eligible for payment after the fact.
The conservation district in Barbour, Randolph, Taylor, Tucker and Upshur counties is the Tygarts Valley Conservation District, 304-457-3026 and email is TVCD@wvca.us.
