WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2005—U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources
Conservation Service Chief Bruce Knight today announced that 12 states and the
Pacific Basin will pilot state-level Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) in
fiscal year 2005. State-level competitions will be available in California,
Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas and the Pacific Basin.
CIG, a component of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, provides
farmers and ranchers with the opportunity, through innovation, to address some
of the country’s most pressing natural resource conservation needs.
“These grants offer an opportunity to promote public-private partnerships and
support the President’s agenda to provide innovative technologies and approaches
to environmental enhancement and protection on working agricultural lands. The
state component will provide flexibility for NRCS state conservationists to
target CIG funds to individual producers, groups of producers and smaller
organizations that submit proposals to address the priority natural resource
concerns in the state,” Knight said.
The CIG final rule, published in the Federal Register on Jan. 11, 2005, provides
for both a national and a state component. The state component is designed to
complement the national grant competition announced by USDA on Jan. 11, 2005.
Funding availability and detailed application and submission information for the
distinct state-level competitions will be announced through public notices,
separate from the national program.
In general, the CIG state component will use the same requirements and
procedures established for the national competition. In the pilot states,
members of the State Technical Committee will evaluate proposals based on the
criteria for proposal evaluation identified in the national request for
proposals issued Jan. 11, 2005. Final award decisions will be determined by the
NRCS state conservationist.
Applicants may apply for both the state and nationwide grants, but must submit
separate applications. Proposals will be funded by only one competition.
Selected applicants may receive grants up to 50 percent of the total project
cost. Applicants must provide nonfederal matching funds for at least 50 percent
of the project cost, of which up to 50 percent may be from in-kind
contributions. The federal CIG contribution for any individual grant may not
exceed $75,000 at the state level.
Information on CIG is on the Web at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/cig.
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