Announcing: 2018 RCPP Grant Award

We are pleased to announce Mills River Partnership has received the Regional Conservation Partnership Program grant via Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)!

This grant, $730,000 invested by NRCS, will fund projects on the mainstem of the Mills River and Foster Creek, a direct tributary of the Mills. The goal is to help protect the source water for 85,000 people in the cities of Hendersonville and Asheville, who depend on the Mills River for their drinking water.

Projects for this grant, include:

• Living Web Farm partnering with Mills River Partnership and NRCS to completely restore a mile-long stretch of a deeply incised eroding streambank
• Henderson County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) assisting North River Farms in the design of an agrichemical handling facility along the mainstem of the Mills River
• And designing a sustainable cattle operation with Living Web Farms where bank sloping, riparian fencing, and off-channel watering tanks will be implemented

In addition to protecting drinking water, the project will improve degraded fish and wildlife habitat, help ensure future agricultural productivity, foster locally produced foods, and expand a unique on-farm educational forum promoting sustainable agricultural practices.

Other contributing partners include U.S. Fish and Wildlife, City of Hendersonville and City of Asheville.

For more information on Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) or the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), visit their website. 

​https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/farmbill/rcpp/