Landowners in eastern North Carolina who want to explore participation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program will have two opportunities in March.

Free workshops designed to familiarize landowners with the program will be held March 14 in Goldsboro and March 31 in Weldon. 

The Weldon event will be held at Halifax Community College in the 400 Building. The registration for the Weldon event can be found at this link 

The information for the Goldsboro event can be found at this link  

The Conservation Reserve Program was created in 1985. 

The program's long-term goal is to re-establish valuable land cover to help improve water quality, prevent soil erosion and reduce loss of wildlife habitat. 

In exchange for a yearly rental payment, farmers enrolled in the program agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and to plant species that will improve environmental health and quality.

The workshops are being hosted jointly by the nonprofit Sustainable Forestry and Land Retention Project and the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources. 

Roanoke Electric Cooperative helped establish SFLRP in 2013 to help North Carolinians increase the income and asset value of family-owned forestland and enhance forest health, land retention and the opportunity to create intergenerational wealth. 

Originally, SFLRP was focused on assisting woodland owners within the seven counties that Roanoke Electric serves — Bertie, Chowan, Gates, Halifax, Hertford, Northampton and Perquimans. 

However, last year the project expanded assistance to assist families in six more counties: Edgecombe, Granville, Martin, Nash, Vance and Warren.

To learn more about SFLRP, visit the website at www.recforestry.org. 

To reach SFLRP Director Alton Perry, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.