By The Morning News
A $1.1 million donation from Arkansas poultry companies may provide the leverage for $4 million to help with environmental efforts in the Illinois River watershed.

Rick Stubblefield, chairman of the Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission, said the group will consider an offer from the Oklahoma Conservation Commission to use $800,000 of the poultry company donation as matching funds for a federal stream bank protection program.

Dan Butler, director of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission's water quality division, said the money would be used as in-kind match, meaning the Scenic Rivers Commission would not have to actually give up the money, but use it for stream bank restoration and programs they've already said they plan to do.

The agreement would allow Oklahoma to create its first Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program through the federal Farm Services Administration, Butler said.

The easements would be fenced to keep cattle off the land and out of the streams. Trees and brush would be allowed to grow up along the river banks to help protect the banks from erosion and to filter sediment and nutrients from water running off fields, Butler said.