Prairie Rivers Network oversees the Building Connections with Absentee Farmland Owners of East Central Illinois project in collaboration with the Macon County SWCD. The project goal is to connect with and inform absentee owners of agricultural land in 10 nearby counties through a newsletter. The project was funded by the Lumpkin Family Foundation, which is focused, in part, on environmental issues in east central Illinois.
The Common Ground newsletter was mailed to more than 2,500 off-farm landowners, informing them about: the state’s efforts to reduce nutrient losses from agricultural lands to waterways; the role of cover crops in improving soil health; and strategies and tools for working with tenant farmers on conservation practice use. The newsletter also provides opportunities to connect with a network of off-farm landowners through the AFT Conservation Learning Circle project. The newsletter was also emailed to SWCD contacts across east central Illinois, and Cover Crop Champion educators shared Common Ground with their circle of landowners, further expanding the distribution.
