FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
EQIP, CSP, ACEP AND CRP
These programs are administered by the United States Department of Agriculture. Please contact our office by phone or email to help guide you through the application process
ACEP helps landowners, land trusts, and other entities protect, restore, and enhance wetlands or protect working farms and ranches through conservation easements.
NRCS provides technical and financial assistance directly to private landowners and American Indian tribes to restore, enhance, and protect wetlands through the purchase of a wetland reserve easement.
If interested contact local NRCS office.
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA), is a voluntary program that encourages agricultural producers and landowners to convert highly erodible and other environmentally sensitive acreage to vegetative cover, such as native grasses, trees, and riparian buffers.
Agricultural producers and landowners with environmentally sensitive land that meets specific criteria related to cropping history and environmental characteristics are eligible.
To apply for the Conservation Reserve Program, agricultural producers and landowners must submit an offer to their local FSA office.
The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) offers technical and financial assistance to help agricultural and forest producers take their conservation efforts to the next level.
The program is designed to compensate agricultural and forest producers who agree to increase their level of conservation by adopting additional conservation activities and maintaining their baseline level of conservation. CSP is for producers who are passionate about conservation and environmental stewardship.
CSP may provide many benefits, including increased crop productivity, decreased inputs, wildlife habitat improvements and increased resilience to weather extremes. CSP also encourages adoption of new technologies and management techniques.
CSP offers opportunities for producers to expand on existing conservation efforts by applying new conservation practices, enhancements, and bundles. These new activities will help enhance natural resources and improve the operation.
Applicants may include individuals, legal entities, joint operations or Indian Tribes that own or rent and currently manage land for agricultural or forest production.
Contact your local NRCS field office and let them know you are interested in CSP.
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) offers technical and financial assistance for working lands, including field crops, specialty crops, organic, confined livestock and grazing, and non-industrial private forest land. Rather than take land out of production,
EQIP helps farmers maintain or improve production while conserving natural resources on working landscapes.
EQIP may provide many benefits, including improved water and air quality, conserved ground and surface water, increased soil health and reduced soil erosion and sedimentation, improved or created wildlife habitat, and mitigation against drought and increasing weather extremes.
EQIP supports producers who improve and sustain natural resources on their operation by implementing structural, vegetative, and management practices. NRCS offers technical assistance, and EQIP offers financial assistance through a contractual agreement.
EQIP has a broad delivery system to put targeted conservation on the ground at the local level, across the entire country. EQIP targets conservation through the following initiatives to address priority natural resource concerns on the most vulnerable lands and high priority watersheds.
EQIP offers payments for practices and activities which may be categorized as vegetative, structural, and management practices.