Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) & Floodplain Easement Program (EWP-FPE) (10.923)

The program offers technical and financial assistance to help local communities relieve imminent threats to life and property caused by floods, fires, windstorms and other natural disasters that impair a watershed.

When natural disasters strike, the Emergency Watershed Protection Program offers vital recovery options for local communities to help people reduce hazards to life and property. Project funds address erosion related watershed impairments by supporting activities such as removing debris from stream channels, road culverts, and bridges; reshaping and protecting eroded banks; correcting damaged drainage facilities; repairing levees and structures; and reseeding damaged areas.

The Emergency Watershed Protection - Floodplain Easement (EWPP-FPE) option offers an alternative method to traditional EWP Program Recovery. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) recommends this option to landowners and others where acquiring an easement is the best approach (more economical and prudent) to reduce threat to life and/or property.