AUTHORS: Billy Nixon, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Sarah Molinaro, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Yong Cao, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ABSTRACT: The Illinois Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a partnership between the US Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA), Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), and the county Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD) that aims to reduce sediment and nutrient runoff, improve water quality, and create and enhance critical habitat for fish and wildlife populations on private lands in the Illinois River and Kaskaskia River basins. In exchange for voluntarily removing frequently flooded and environmentally sensitive cropland from production, landowners receive compensation to implement conservation practices that support the goals of CREP. Since CREP was established in the Illinois River (1998) and Kaskaskia River (2010) basins, 1,324 parcels totaling 90,000 acres have been enrolled into conservation practices. Beginning in 2013, the CREP Aquatic Life Monitoring Project has conducted wadable stream surveys to monitor progress towards CREP’s aquatic life goal of increasing native fish species and sensitive aquatic insects and evaluate how CREP affects stream habitat, fish communities, and benthic macroinvertebrate communities. This poster gives a brief history of the project and summarizes the current study design and future directions of the monitoring project.
