Sign up period opens for Poultry Farms Regional Conservation Partnership Program – Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Oklahoma City, Okla., November 7, 2022 – The Oklahoma Conservation Commission and the Natural Resources Conservation Service announce sign-up dates for the Neighborhood Solutions to Natural Resources Concerns Project– Neighbors Helping Neighbors. The sign-up period will close December 15, 2022 and allows either poultry growers or their immediate neighbors to sign up for one of several conservation practices to be installed on their farm.

The Neighbors Helping Neighbors project is funded in part from USDA NRCS with additional funding from the U.S. EPA Section 319 program and an appropriation from the Oklahoma legislature. Other partners include the Grand River Dam Authority, OSU Extension Services, Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts and the Poultry Federation.

“The purpose of the project is to bring poultry growers and their neighbors together with technical experts to discuss ways to address natural resource concerns,” said Shanon Phillips, the Oklahoma Conservation Commission Water Quality Division Director. “The unique thing about this project is that we can implement practices on either the grower’s land or the neighbor’s. Some of the practices we are already working to get installed are tree barriers to help address odor and dust.”

The project will focus on the poultry growing areas of eastern Oklahoma and will primarily work directly between poultry growers and their immediate neighbors.  On a larger scale, it will protect natural resources in eastern Oklahoma while also supporting the important regional poultry industry. Landowners that either own a poultry farm or land adjacent to one in the following counties could be eligible: Adair, Cherokee, Craig, Delaware, Haskell, Le Flore, Mayes, McIntosh, Muskogee, Ottawa or Sequoyah.

Some of the natural resource concerns that can be addressed through the program are odor and dust, water quality and light pollution.

The OCC encourages interested parties to contact Jeri Fleming at jeri.fleming@grda.com or (405) 334-6343 for more information about the program. To sign up for the program visit your local NRCS county office.