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Title

06

:
Agriculture






Chapter

215

:
AGRICULTURAL WATER QUALITY






Subchapter

006
:
VERMONT CRITICAL AREA SEEDING AND FILTER STRIP PROGRAM










 

§

4900. Vermont Seeding and Filter Strip Program

(a) The

Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets is authorized to develop a Vermont

critical source area seeding and filter strip program in addition to the

federal Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program in order to compensate farmers

for establishing and maintaining harvestable perennial vegetative grassed

waterways and filter strips on agricultural cropland perpendicular and adjacent

to the surface waters of the State, including ditches. Eligible acreage would

include annually tilled cropland or a portion of cropland currently cropped as

hay that will not be rotated into an annual crop for a 10-year period of time.

Acreage that is currently managed as hay shall have a prior history of rotation

as corn or other annual commodity crop.

(b) Incentive

payments from the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets shall be made at the

outset of a 10-year agreement to establish or maintain the acreage as

harvestable grassed waterway or filter strip.

(c) The Secretary

of Agriculture, Food and Markets may establish by procedure financial and

technical criteria for the implementation and operation of the Vermont critical

source area seeding and filter strip program.

(d) Land

enrolled in the Vermont agricultural buffer program shall be considered to be

in "active use" as that term is defined in 32 V.S.A. § 3752(15).

(e) As used in

this section, "surface waters" means all rivers, streams, ditches,

creeks, brooks, reservoirs, ponds, lakes, and springs which are contained

within, flow through, or border upon the State or any portion of it. (Added

2005, No. 147 (Adj. Sess.), § 55, eff. May 15, 2006; amended 2009, No. 110

(Adj. Sess.), § 10, eff. May 18, 2010; 2015, No. 39, § 15.)