The 2018 Farm Bill required the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish an Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production. In authorizing the Office, Congress recognized that farmers in urban communities may not fully take advantage of USDA’s resources and may need extra focus. USDA recently created this Office within the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the Office has been busy implementing the farm bill’s urban agriculture provisions.

The Office has a number of responsibilities and will administer two grant programs. The first, the  Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production Competitive Grant Program , is currently open for applications until July 6, 2020 . This program will fund both planning and implementation grants for tribal governments, local governments, nonprofits and schools to support and increase urban agricultural producers. A webinar detailing the grants' purpose, project types, eligibility and basic requirements will be held on June 3, 2020 from 2:00-4:00 p.m., Eastern . To learn more, visit USDA's website . The second grant program, the  Community Compost and Food Waste Reduction Project Cooperative Agreements , is accepting applications from local governments, including conservation districts, for projects specifically focused on compost and related urban conservation.

While the new Office at NRCS is the focal point for most urban agriculture work at NRCS, the 2018 Farm Bill also created a new research grant program housed at USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Although this grant program has not yet been launched, NIFA is currently asking for feedback on how the grant program should operate and what research needs funding. To view the solicitation and provide comments,  visit the Federal Register .

NACD supported the 2018 Farm Bill’s urban agriculture provisions and the creation of the Office of Urban Agriculture and Production. Conservation districts have been bringing voluntary conservation to urban areas for many years and have undertaken projects to improve the water quality of urban stormwater, control erosion and sediment from development sites, and increase conservation by urban farmers. More information on the Office can be found here:   https://www.farmers.gov/urban.

2020 NACD

SOUTHEAST REGION MEETING CANCELED

NACD's Southeast Region Meeting, scheduled for Aug. 9-11, 2020 at The Lodge at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, Ala., has been postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) concerns.

The luncheon planned for Aug. 10 to honor the 2020 Southeast Region Conservation Hall of Fame inductees is also postponed until 2021. The rescheduled dates and more information will be shared when available. NACD would like to thank the Alabama Association of Conservation Districts for their efforts in planning the meeting and their continued partnership moving forward.

Please contact NACD Southeast Region Representative Candice Abinanti with any questions. You can find the latest updates and information on the Southeast Region webpage.

Through a 2018 NACD  Technical Assistance Grant ,  Hill County-Blackland Soil and Water Conservation District  (SWCD) in Texas has been able to remove the backlog that has plagued the district for quite some time.

Upon receiving their grant, the district was able to bring on  Jai Erwin  as a technical support specialist. Erwin has helped with numerous projects that have eased the district’s backlog and helped the producers in their area.

In 2015, the county experienced a devastating flood that caused a lot of runoff, damaged terraces, created ditches and more. The county received federal assistance to help farmers mitigate the issues created; however, they didn’t have adequate staff to help everyone. Erwin made this project his first priority, preparing almost 200 individual applications that allowed landowners to move forward with their repairs.

“These individuals were at risk of losing their assistance due to the aging of the project, through no fault of their own, and my efforts helped to prevent this from happening,”  Erwin said .

Erwin also assisted with the  Grasslands Conservation Initiative (GCI), a Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) initiative that assists producers in protecting grazing land. Eligible and participating producers received $18 per base acre for maintaining their land in grass. Erwin worked diligently with producers to draw up their plans and verify their farming practices.

As many of the neighboring counties were also short-staffed, Erwin assisted them with their GCI applications. In total, Erwin says he completed over 80 applications across several months.

Erwin has also spent time working with landowners in his county to determine what crop rotations should be utilized. Through discussions with these landowners, he helped them create rotations that would allow their soils time to regenerate any lost nutrients and improve soil health over time.

Erwin moved to Texas from Johnson County, Arkansas, where he had worked for his local conservation district.

“Coming from a district that deals almost exclusively with poultry farmers, the diversity of projects in this region is very welcomed,”  he said.

To learn more about NACD’s Technical Assistance grants or to read other TA success stories, visit the NACD Technical Assistance Grants webpage.

WORCESTER COUNTY CD, MASS.

In 2019, NACD, in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) awarded funding to the  Worcester County Conservation District (CD) in Mass., to help expand its Healthy Soils Initiative into urban areas, providing on-the-ground technical assistance and educational information to farmers, community gardens and backyard gardeners.

Through soil sampling services, many residents in Worcester County improved soil fertility, using responsible fertilizer application. Some customers indicated they would have continued to apply compost and fertilizer unnecessarily if they had not had their soil tested. By partnering with others in the community, Worcester CD was able to give ten workshops, as well as hold a documentary viewing, resulting in increased visibility and new clients for technical assistance and soil sampling.

Ongoing support through technical advice, soil sampling and presentations have been initiated and continue today with partners such as Growing Places Community Gardeners and the Greater Quabbin Food Alliance. The first SoilSHOP event (pictured above) took place at the Fitchburg Farmers Market. This ideal site was located in a dense urban setting with a rich industrial history, allowing for the conservation district to screen soils for toxins such as lead. The SoilSHOP was marketed heavily with staff attending the week prior to remind market-goers to bring their sample.

The event involved an impressive set-up, including a field lab consisting of a handheld portable x-ray fluoroscopy analyzer. Partners from NRCS and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry had personnel on hand, and help was provided by TetraTech, an environmental firm with x-ray fluorescence capacity .

 

Staff provided a soils training program to nine Envirothon teams in Worcester County, with more than half from environmental justice communities. These students were particularly passionate to learn about the environment around them.

Worcester County CD is encouraged by the increasing interest in soil sampling, and technical assistance requests are building, ranging from urban gardeners and homesteaders to farmers. These services will continue through the conservation district, made possible by continued funding and support from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. 

Learn more about  the project on NACD's website.

Deadline Approaches: NACD 2020

TA Grants RFP

The deadline to submit proposals for NACD’s current round of Technical Assistance (TA) Grants is Monday, June 1, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

All proposals must be reviewed and ranked by your state/territory conservation partnership leaders, who may be requesting your information by a date prior to NACD's submission date in order to have time for their review, so please communicate with your state/territory association office if interested in applying.

As with previous years, this year’s TA Grants are made possible through a partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). This agreement allows NACD to provide an opportunity to work together to serve our customers in the highest workload areas with additional boots on the ground.

 

To learn more about how to submit your proposal, visit NACD’s website. Please contact NACD Projects and Partnerships Coordinator Meg Leader at 812-512-1811 or your NACD Region Representative with any questions. 

Now Available:

NACD Pollinator Field Day Guide in Spanish

Thanks to the efforts of Gelyan Reyes and Paola C. Rivera Bonilla of the Caribe Soil Conservation District (SCD) in Puerto Rico, the NACD Pollinator Field Day Curriculum Guide is now available in Spanish.

With its operations interrupted by COVID-19 (coronavirus), the conservation district has been hard at work translating the guide and updating its education materials.

The guide provides “excellent material for our work in schools,” says Lorimar Figueroa, Caribe SCD employee and agronomist.

NACD is grateful for the Caribe SCD’s work translating the guide, which helps extend its lessons on the importance of pollinators to Spanish-speaking students and educators.

USDA National Agroforestry Center RFPs Now Available

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agroforestry Center is requesting proposals to substantially expand and accelerate the availability of information to support decisions on the adoption and design of urban agriculture that includes agroforestry practices.

The agreements awarded under this announcement will support USDA's goals in supporting producers and providing key decision-making information that supports adoption of agroforestry.

Proposals must be submitted by June 1, 2020. Project budgets should be between $25,000-50,000. To learn more and submit a proposal, click here.

Richland SWCD Launches Seed Program Thanks to Friends

of NACD Grant

Last week, staff from the Richland Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) in South Carolina prepared and packed more than 1,200 packets of vegetable, herb and wildflower seeds to mail to the community from their new Seed Sanctuary program.

The new program provides Richland County residents with free packets of popular herb, vegetable and wildflower seeds chosen for their ease of growth in the region. With over 1,500 requests in just 12 days, the program received a large and welcome response from the community. Richland SWCD Education Assistant Hannah Lindsay, who developed and oversees the program, is thrilled with the excitement it has generated.

“We’re really excited to get as much seed out there as possible and create as many gardeners as possible in Richland County in order to continue to spread our message of conservation,” she said.

To learn more about the launch of Richland SWCD’s Seed Sanctuary program, visit the Richland SWCD’s webpage or check out their video on YouTube.

The Richland SWCD Seed Sanctuary program was partly funded by a grant from the Friends of NACD District Grants Program, which provides opportunities for Friends of NACD to support individual conservation districts. The Richland SWCD was one of four districts awarded a Friends of NACD District Grant at NACD’s 2020 Annual Meeting earlier this year.

Promote your conservation district or state association's tree sale, annual meeting, webinar, field day or more on NACD's Calendar of Events !