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Western Lake Erie pilot focuses on climate-smart small-scale efforts

The Michigan Association of Conservation Districts plans to launch a new Michigan Climate Smart Farm Project in the Western Lake Erie Basin later this year.

Executive director Dan Moilanen says the pilot will support small and underserved producers in Washtenaw, Lenawee, Monroe, and Wayne counties.

“It’s going to be a climate verification system that’s basically adjacent to the MAEAP program,” he explains.  “A farmer can get environmentally verified and then also be carbon climate verified, and then they can market their products as such as being climate-smart products.”

The Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) is a state-funded program that supports farmers’ voluntary environmental stewardship efforts.

During a recent Michigan House Agriculture Committee hearing, Moilanen explained how more cost-share dollars for MAEAP could also get more conservation practices on the ground.

“If Michigan had its own cost-share program that was in addition to federal programs, that would go a long way I think in helping to further improve the efficacy of MAEAP as a program,” he said.

Moilanen tells Brownfield he hopes the state will expand MAEAP to include a climate verification process so participating farmers and urban producers can market products as environmentally and climate verified.

The five-year climate pilot will offer cost-share funding from a $4.7 million USDA-NRCS Climate Smart Commodities Grant to implement conservation practices across the region.