Buffer Strips

The Nebraska Buffer Strip Program enrolls or establishes grass filter strips adjacent to seasonal or perennial streams, canals, or around wetlands. Intermittent drainages through cropped fields may also qualify. Annual payments up to $250 per acre are available for buffer strips planted to a specified grass seed mixture at widths from 20 to 120 feet, or up to 180 feet wide for riparian forest buffers. Buffer strips are placed between cropland and surface water passages, and are designed to be effective at removing sediment and other pollutants that could otherwise reach surface water sources.