Iowa farmers can now access special funding for implementing monarch butterfly and other pollinator-supporting practices on their farms  through a Regional Conservation Partnership Pro­­gram (RCPP) project called Improving Working Lands for Monarch Butterflies.

Pheasants Forever, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Nat­ural Resources Conservation Ser­­vice (NRCS), and the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation are collaborating to provide incentive payments to Iowa landowners for planting diverse stands of native grasses and wildflowers that benefit pollinators and other wildlife.

 NRCS accepts program applications for the program on a continuous basis, but only applications filed by July 12 are eligible for the next round of special funding through the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).

Josh Divan, coordinating wildlife biologist with Pheasants Forever, says monarch plantings can be established in areas of unproductive cropland, in sensitive areas such as buffers around waterways or wetlands, or in pastures or used to square up oddly shaped fields. “The Monarch RCPP-CSP also supports new and existing conservation activities on cropland and pastureland,” he said.

For more information about the RCPP-CSP monarch project, visit your local NRCS office or go to www.ia.nrcs.usda.gov.