Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP)
A WREP Success Story
For more than a decade, the Tri-state Conservation Partnership (TCP) has focused its efforts to support and strengthen the delivery of the Wetland Reserve Easements (WRE) program in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) of AR, LA and MS. The TCP is currently enjoying significant success achieved through the NRCS’s Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP) program. Through WREP, the TCP has reached a decade-long milestone for critical habitat restoration and protection in priority portions of the MAV. From 2012 to 2023, WREP funding has been awarded to restore well over 40,000 acres of forested wetlands within the length of the Mississippi River batture. In addition, since 2015 WREP funding has been awarded to restore more than 22,000 acres within priority regions of the MAV outside the batture in AR, LA and MS. Together, these bring the total MAV WREP restoration and protection acres (completed and ongoing) to well over 60,000!
AR Conservation Estate: WREP in purple, WRE blue, public lands gray
Through the work of the TCP, the WREP program has served as an effective tool for bringing federal, state and private partners together to further bolster the tremendous restoration work being accomplished through the Wetland Reserve Easements (WRE) program. NRCS WREP grants leverage government and non-government funding to prioritize restoration needs within critical portions of the JV region, delivering significant wildlife habitat and water quality improvements in priority areas. In addition, when proposed WREP projects are awarded, the funding comes in addition to the regular annual WRE. Figure 1 contains a portion of the central AR MAV, demonstrating how targeting WREP funding to restore wetlands in priority areas can serve to advance the development of large habitat blocks within the conservation estate.
Read the history of good news about the WREP in the MAV
Advancing a Wetlands Legacy
The Tri-state Conservation Partnership (TCP) was pleased to learn in early May of the successful award of $5M to its proposed FY23 Tristate Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP) project in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV).
Successful Award – FY22 Tri-state WREP Proposal
The Tri-state Conservation Partnership (TCP) is celebrating the November 3 announcement of a $5M award for its FY22 Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP) project proposal. The announcement by NRCS marks successful funding of a fourth phase of the multi-year Tri-state WREP project strategy. The core focus of the Tri-state WREP project is the restoration of forested wetlands within priority portions of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. It primarily targets acquisition of easements adjacent to or in the immediate vicinity of existing, permanently protected conservation estate (i.e., state, federal and wetland reserve easement tracts).
2021 Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership Awards in the LMVJV
Strength of partnership within the LMVJV is evidenced once again through the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) recent award of Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP) projects within the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV).