Prairie Pothole producers eligible to receive funding for solving saline issues

The top resource concern in North Dakota’s counties is salinity – that was identified by every Soil Conservation District (SCD) in the state.

Last fall, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Local Work Groups in the state’s 56 SCDs met and identified five top resource concerns that they wanted to see improved in the state.

Those five concerns were: soil quality limitations – salinity and chemical concentrations; pest pressure; field sediment; nutrient and pathogen loss; and degraded plant condition and concentrated erosion.

“Every Local Work Group (LWG) in North Dakota identified ‘soil quality limitations’ or saline as a top resource concern for fiscal year 2027,” said Mark Hayek, ASTC partnerships coordinator with NRCS.

USDA decided to invest an additional $30 million through two programs to help North Dakota producers in the Prairie Pothole Region address the top concern of salinity.

Those two programs the funding is geared toward are the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).

NRCS calls the Prairie Pothole Region the largest wetland landscape in the nation, containing 1.6 million wetland basins across 39 counties.