Washington NRCS Farm
Bill Programs and Services
Updated
01/14/2009
NRCS's natural resources conservation programs help people reduce soil
erosion, enhance water supplies, improve water quality, increase wildlife
habitat, and reduce damages caused by floods and other natural disasters. Public
benefits include enhanced natural resources that help sustain agricultural
productivity and environmental quality while supporting continued economic
development, recreation, and scenic beauty.
Contact your local
USDA Service Center for additional information regarding program details in
your area.
In some cases, materials on the following pages do not meet 508 compliance standards. We
apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. In an effort to provide further
assistance, a point of contact has been provided on each program page.
Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG)
Conservation of Private
Grazing Land Initiative (CPGL)
Conservation Security Program
(CSP)
Conservation Technical
Assistance (CTA)
Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) EQIP
- Keeping Your Forest Healthy
NEW
Emergency Watershed Protection
Program (EWP)
Farm and Ranch Lands
Protection Program (FRPP)
Grassland Reserve Program (GRP)
Plant Material Program
Resource Conservation
and Development Program (RC&D)
Snow Survey and Water
Supply Forecasts Program
Soil Survey Program
Technical Service Providers (TSP)
Watershed Program (PL-566)
Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP)
Wildlife Habitat
Incentives Program (WHIP)
Washington Farm Bill Programs
Conservation of Private Grazing Land Initiative (CPGL)
The Conservation of Private Grazing Land Initiative will ensure that
technical, educational, and related assistance is provided to those who own
private grazing lands. It is not a cost share program. This
technical assistance will offer opportunities for better grazing land
management, protecting soil from erosive wind and water, using more
energy-efficient ways to produce food and fiber, conserving water, providing
habitat for wildlife, sustaining forage and grazing plants, using plants to
sequester greenhouse gases and increase soil organic matter, and using grazing
lands as a source of biomass energy and raw materials for industrial products.
...More Info on
CPGL (This link is directed to the national NRCS program site.)
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program provides
technical, educational, and financial assistance to eligible farmers and
ranchers to address soil, water, and related natural resource concerns on their
lands. The program provides assistance to farmers and ranchers in
complying with Federal, State, and tribal environmental laws, and achieves its
ends through the implementation of a conservation plan which includes
structural, vegetative, and land management practices on eligible land.
...More Info on EQIP
Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP)
The Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program provides funds to help purchase development
rights to keep productive farmland in agricultural uses. Working through
existing programs, USDA joins with State, tribal, or local governments to
acquire conservation easements or other interests from landowners. USDA
provides up to 50 percent of the fair market easement value. To qualify,
farmland must be part of a pending offer from a State, tribe, or local farmland
protection program, be privately owned, have a conservation plan, be large
enough to sustain agricultural production, be accessible to markets related to
whatever the land produces, have adequate infrastructure and agricultural
support, and have surrounding parcels of land that can support long-term
agricultural production. Depending on funding availability, proposals must
be submitted by the government entities to the appropriate NRCS State Office
during the application window.
...More Info on
FRPP (This link is directed to the national NRCS program site.)
Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP)
The Wetlands Reserve Program is a
voluntary program to restore wetlands. Participating landowners can establish
conservation easements of either permanent or 30-year duration, or can enter
into restoration cost-share agreements where no easement is involved. In
exchange for establishing a permanent easement, the landowner receives payment
up to the agricultural value of the land and 100 percent of the restoration
costs for restoring the wetlands The 30-year easement payment is 75 percent of
what would be provided for a permanent easement on the same site and 75
percent of the restoration cost. The voluntary agreements are for a minimum
10-year duration and provide for 75 percent of the cost of restoring the
involved wetlands. Easements and restoration cost-share agreements establish
wetland protection and restoration as the primary land use for the duration of
the easement or agreement. In all instances, landowners continue to control
access to their land.
...More
Info on WRP
Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP)
The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program provides
financial incentives to develop habitat for fish and wildlife on private
lands. Participants agree to implement a wildlife habitat development plan and
USDA agrees to provide cost-share assistance for the initial implementation of
wildlife habitat development practices. USDA and program participants enter
into a cost-share agreement for wildlife habitat development. This agreement
generally lasts a minimum of 10 years from the date that the contract is
signed.
...More
Info on WHIP
Grassland Reserve Program (GRP)
The Grassland Reserve Program (GRP)
is a voluntary program that helps landowners and operators restore and protect
grassland, including rangeland, and pastureland, and certain other lands,
while maintaining the areas as grazing lands. The program emphasizes support
for grazing operations, plant and animal biodiversity, and grassland and land
containing shrubs and forbs under the greatest threat of conversion.
GRP is authorized by the Food Security Act of 1985, as
amended by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. The USDA
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA)
administer the program, in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service. Funding
for the GRP comes from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC).
...More Info on GRP (This
link is directed to the national NRCS program site.)
Conservation Security Program (CSP)
The Conservation Security
Program (CSP) will help producers of working lands promote conservation and
improve the quality of soil, water, air, energy, and plant and animal life. It
will provide environmental benefits by addressing resource concerns on
agricultural working land.
CSP will identify and meaningfully reward those farmers and ranchers who are
meeting the very highest standards of conservation and environmental
management on their operations. CSP will be complementary to other USDA
conservation programs. Where other programs help with installation or initial
establishment of conservation management practices, CSP will provide a payment
for those who have attained a level of conservation achievement that goes
above and beyond minimum resource requirements for non-degradation.
The CSP is going through the formal rulemaking process and will available
after publication of the final rule.
... More Info on CSP
Washington NRCS Programs
Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA)
NRCS provides assistance to land-users, communities, units of State and local
government, and other Federal agencies in planning and implementing conservation
systems. The purpose of the conservation systems is to reduce erosion,
improve soil and water quality, improve and conserve wetlands, enhance fish and
wildlife habitat, improve air quality, improve pasture and range condition,
reduce upstream flooding and improve woodlands.
...More
Info on Conservation Technical Assistance (This link is directed to the national NRCS program site.)
Plant Materials
Program
The purpose of the program is to provide native plants that can help solve
natural resource problems. Beneficial uses for which plant material may be
developed include biomass production, carbon sequestration, erosion reduction,
wetland restoration, water quality improvement, streambank and riparian area
protection, coastal dune stabilization, and other special conservation treatment
needs. Scientists at the Plant Materials Centers seek out plants that show
promise for meeting an identified conservation need and test their performance.
After species are proven, they are released to the private sector for commercial
production. The work at the 26 centers is carried our cooperatively with
state and Federal agencies, commercial businesses, and seed and nursery
associations.
...More
Info on Washington Plant Materials Center
Resource Conservation and Development Program (RC&D)
The purpose of the Resource Conservation and Development Program is to
accelerate the conservation, development, and utilization of natural
resources, improve the general level of economic activity, and enhance the
environment and standard of living in authorized RC&D areas. It improves
the capability of State, tribal, and local units of government as well as
local nonprofit organizations in rural areas to plan, develop, and carry out
programs for resource conservation and development. The program also
establishes or improves coordination systems in rural areas. Current
program objectives focus on improvement of quality of life achieved through
natural resources conservation and community development which leads to
sustainable communities and the management and conservation of natural
resources. Authorized RC&D areas are locally sponsored areas designated
by the Secretary of Agriculture for RC&D technical and financial assistance
program funds. NRCS can provide grants for land conservation, water
management, community development, and environmental needs in authorized RC&D
areas.
...More Info on RC&D
Soil Survey Program
Soil surveys provide a scientific inventory of soil resources that includes
maps showing the locations and extent of soils, data about the physical and
chemical properties of those soils, and information derived from that data about
potentialities and problems of use on each kind of soil in detail to meet the
needs of farmers, agricultural technicians, community planners, engineers, and
scientists applying the findings of research and experience to specific land
areas. Soil surveys provide information needed to maintain usable soil.
They also provide information needed to protect water, wetlands, and wildlife
habitats. Soil surveys are the basis for predicting the behavior of a soil
under various uses, its potential erosion hazard, potential for ground water
contamination, and suitability for cultivated crops, trees, and grasses.
Soil surveys are important to planners, engineers, zoning commissions, tax
commissioners, homeowners, developers, and land-dependent processes such as
agriculture. The NRCS Soil Survey Division, through its World Soil
Resources Staff, helps gather and interpret soil information for global use.
NRCS provides the soil surveys for privately owned U.S. lands and, through
its National Soil Survey Center, provides scientific expertise to enable us to
develop and maintain a uniform system for mapping and assessing soil resources.
This allows information from different locations to be shared, regardless of
which agency collects it. NRCS provides most of the training in soil
survey to Federal agencies and assists other Federal agencies with their soil
inventories. NRCS is also responsible for developing the standards and
mechanisms for providing digital soil information for the national spatial data
infrastructure required by Executive Order 12906.
...More Info on Soil Survey
Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasts
NRCS provides western states and Alaska with projected water supply
information. Field staff collect and analyze data on depth and water
equivalent of the snow pack at more than 1,200 mountain sites and estimate
annual water availability, spring runoff, and summer stream flows.
Individuals, organizations, and state and Federal agencies use these forecasts
for decisions relating to agricultural production, fish and wildlife management,
municipal and industrial water supply, urban development, flood control, power
generation, and water quality management. The National Weather Service
includes the forecasts in their river forecasting function.
...More Info on Snow Survey
Watershed Program
(PL-566)
The Small Watershed Program works through local government sponsors
and helps participants solve natural resource and related economic problems
on a watershed basis. Projects include watershed protection, flood
prevention, erosion and sediment control, water supply, water quality, fish
and wildlife habitat enhancement, wetlands creation and restoration, and
public recreation in watersheds of 250,000 or fewer acres. Both technical
and financial assistance are available.
...More
info on National Watershed Program (This link is directed to the national NRCS program site.)
Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP)
The Emergency Watershed Protection Program was passed by Congress to
relieve imminent threats to life and property caused by storms, flooding, and
erosion. It is designed to assist groups of people with a common
problem, but individuals who are sponsored by a local unit of government may
also qualify.
EWP provides technical and cost-sharing assistance up to 75% of project
costs; and provides a case-by-case investigation of eligible projects to
develop remedial measures. EWP protects homes, businesses, highways,
public facilities, and a wide variety of other property damaged or threatened
by natural disasters or emergencies. Public and private landowners are
eligible but they must be represented by a sponsoring local unit of government
such as a city, county, or watershed authority.
... More Info on EWP (This link is directed to the
national NRCS program site.)
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