Beebe is proposing to set aside $ 1. 5 million from the state’s General Improvement Fund to pay part of a state match to establish a $ 30 million Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.

The other $ 1. 5 million of the state’s $ 3 million cash match would come from a donation from Northwest Arkansas poultry companies, which are fighting an Oklahoma lawsuit over whether they’ve degraded the Illinois River watershed with poultry litter.

The state stands to get as much as $ 24 million from the federal government for the program, which would pay farmers to take land out of agricultural production along the river and streams in the watershed. It would be strictly voluntary and would be administered by the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, which would have to accept the state’s proposal for the program to start.

Another such program was recently announced in the Cache River and Bayou DeView watersheds, which are considered crucial for the ivory-billed woodpecker.

The state’s Natural Resources Commission applied to the Farm Service Agency last month for the Illinois project, and it usually takes three to six months to hear back, said Kenneth Colbert, the commission’s environmental program manager.

The idea is to entice farmers to install natural buffers between streams and the rest of their operations, creating a kind of filter system in the watershed.

In its application, the commission described the Illinois as “impaired by nutrients.” Excessive buildup of phosphorus over the years has polluted many of the region’s streams, it reported.

The application also states that agricultural producers in the area have been subjected to significant regulations related to the use of poultry litter “and further water quality degradation will likely result in increased regulation on the industry.”

Oklahoma also is applying to start such a program and received money from poultry companies to get it started.

Archie Schaffer III, senior vice president at Tyson Foods Inc., said the donations signal that his and other poultry companies “think protecting water quality is a good idea,” not that they’re to blame for the problems.

“This is in the long-term interest of the economies of Northwest Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma, of which we’re a big part,” Schaffer said. “We want to do our share to help see that programs like this are successful.”

He pointed out that poultry operations aren’t the only entities that contribute phosphorus to the watershed.

“We would hope that other important sectors of the economy would participate as well,” Schaffer said.

Colbert said ideally the program would allow suburban fertilizer users and other contributors of phosphorus to take part, but the program only covers agricultural operations.

“We understand that they’re not the only ones, but we have to work with what we have,” he said.

Shanon Phillips, assistant director of the Water Quality Division of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, said about $ 400, 000 from poultry companies has gone to help meet her state’s match for its program. That application is much further in the process, with tentative approval from the federal government, she said.

The Arkansas proposal calls for using the money to help farmers pay to plant trees and native grasses while paying them for the loss of agricultural use of the property. It would be a 15-year program.

Phillips said Oklahoma officials think it’s “fantastic” that Arkansas is applying as well.

Because the headwaters of the Illinois are in Arkansas, “we can only control so far,” she said. “If we do something, we’re not going to solve the whole problem.”

Matt DeCample, spokesman for Beebe, said the state wanted to jump at the opportunity to invest $ 1. 5 million and possibly get $ 24 million for the project from the Farm Service Agency.

“This is something we would have pursued regardless of any [lawsuits ] or other factors because it’s good for the environment,” he said.