Auburn, Ala, May 4, 2011 – The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has made available $600,000 in financial and technical assistance through the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) program for disaster recovery aid in Alabama. NRCS is helping with the disaster through EWP by removing debris out of waterways. Local NRCS field personnel are also assisting the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries with identifying burial sites for livestock.
“Our thoughts are with the families and communities across Alabama that have been affected by this severe weather,” said NRCS State Conservationist Dr. William Puckett. “NRCS personnel in our state and local offices are surveying damaged areas and coordinating with their state and local government counterparts to provide the much-needed assistance as quickly as possible to communities that have been hard hit by this tragedy.”
In partnership and through local government sponsors, EWP provides assistance to areas that have been damaged by natural disasters, such as floods, windstorms, drought, and wildfires. The EWP program safeguards lives and property by installing conservation measures to reduce storm water runoff and prevent soil erosion, as well as remove watershed impairments such as debris caught in culverts and under bridges.
More information about EWP is available at: www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/ewp or contact the local NRCS field office listed in the telephone directory under U.S. Department of Agriculture or on-line at http://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov.