Financial Assistance programs available to fund conservation projects on your land

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:20:04 +0100

    The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has financial assistance programs to help fund conservation practice installation on your land.

    Some examples of practices that have been funded in the past include: Tree and shrub planting, brush and browse management, windbreaks, wildlife openings, forest stand improvement, stream crossings and grazing systems.

    You will need to be eligible and have a Conservation Plan in place before signing up for a financial assistance program. Eligibility is relatively simple and straight forward process that involves filling out 3 forms for the Farm Service Agency.

    A Conservation Plan will involve a field visit by NRCS to do a resource inventory of your property and scheduling practices to address resource concerns. In plain terms this means walking the land with the landowner to look for problems or opportunities for enhancements.

    The land can be used for wildlife, forestry or agriculture. Some practices can address headquarters areas (such as well sealing for abandoned wells).

Cut off dates for financial assistance programs are expected to be posted soon. Get in to your local NRCS office as soon as possible to get started on a Conservation Plan or to learn more about what NRCS has to offer.

Roger Marks
Soil Conservation Technician
USDA - NRCS

1202 8th Street South

Virginia, MN 55792
Phone: 218-741-3937 x108

Fax: 218-741-9407

Conservation planning for your land - how does it work?

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:04:50 +0100

Do you find yourself asking “How do I maximize production, maintain long term viability and leave something for the next generation?” A conservation plan should be your first step. Resource professionals can provide you with options and assist you or your land manager in selecting the best combination of conservation practices to meet both natural resource needs and the land management goals of your operation.

Conservation plans combine the land owner’s or land manager’s land management skills and budgets with proven technology to help ensure: clean water, clean air, quality soil, abundant wildlife, healthy environment and energy conservation. Which when implemented and combined with conservation activities on neighboring properties results in effectively managing natural resources across the landscape.

So how do we know what needs to be done? Well each of us, if we actually stop and look around know we can improve how we do things. In Conservation Planning that is what we start off doing. We stop, look for resource issues and consider how they affect the overall objectives for your operation and the landscape. We then inventory the soil, water, air, plant, animal, human, and energy resources available to us. Combining this information and analyzing the interactions of the resources and management activities already in place, the planner can now formulate alternatives for improvement.

Your next step is to consider the suggested conservation practices and management systems the planner is proposing. Which is the best alternative to meet your objectives? Which alternative will help you comply with environmental regulations? What else might need to be considered? Do the practices really fit your budget? How much change can you adjust to? How soon do you want to get things done? You the client make the decisions which are then recorded in a conservation plan.

A Conservation Plan that includes your goals, a map of your property, a soils map and soils description, resource inventory data, a list of your conservation decisions, location and schedule for applying conservation practices and systems, and maintenance information for installed measures becomes a guide to land management and conservation implementation. It may also help qualify you for incentive programs that would financially assist you in implementing your plan and meeting your goals.

For those who may already have a Forest Stewardship Plan (FSP), we can incorporate that plan into the Conservation Plan. The Conservation Plan can address areas that are not typically covered in the FSP such as open fields and headquarters areas. Some common practices we design are: Tree and Shrub Plantings, Windbreaks, Hedgerows, Forest Stand Improvement, Forest Site Preparation, Upland Wildlife Habitat Improvement, Early Succesional Habitat Development (Brush and Browse Management and Forest Openings), Prescribed Grazing, Dams, Pasture and Hayland Plantings, Well Decommissioning and many other practices.

Contact your local NRCS office to learn more about conservation planning, conservation practices and financial assistance programs.

rogers-nrcs-blog

Financial Assistance programs available to fund conservation projects on your land

Conservation planning for your land - how does it work?