Reminder: the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in California is offering $22,774,000 through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). California is one of only four states in the nation to pilot this important program to help agricultural producers, including Tribes, alleviate the immediate impacts of drought and other natural resource challenges on working lands. NRCS will make available this funding through Conservation Incentive Contracts (CIC), a new option available through EQIP.
Created in the 2018 farm bill, EQIP CIC funds are five-year contracts. In California, the program will focus on practices such as “forest management plans, tree/shrub establishment, brush management, prescribed grazing, pasture and hay planting, wildlife habitat, livestock watering systems, and cover crops,” NRCS noted. According to the agency, the program will have six priority areas: cropland in the San Joaquin Valley; cropland statewide; cropland in the Klamath Basin; statewide range and pasture; statewide forest; and statewide tribal cropland, range, pasture and forest.
Signup for this targeted funding runs through July 12, 2021.You can download an application here. For more information or questions, please contact the Mendocino USDA NRCS Service Center below:
UKIAH SERVICE CENTER
1252 AIRPORT PARK BLVD STE B1
UKIAH, CA 95482
(707) 468-9223