This fall, NACD, in partnership with NRCS, issued a request for proposals for Technical Assistance (TA) Grants. The anticipated $27 million in funding will support technical positions in high-need areas, strengthening conservation delivery across the U.S. and territories.

The TA Grants program provides resources to conservation districts to address the growing demand for voluntary working lands conservation. The funding supports boots-on-the-ground assistance to help producers develop conservation plans, implement practices, and access programs like EQIP and CSP. To date, NACD’s Technical Assistance grantees have supported over 108,000 producers and improved conservation outcomes on more than 6.8 million acres nationwide.

To ensure conservation districts have adequate time to coordinate with their NRCS partners, NACD is extending the TA Grant Program application deadline to January 8, 2026. With the federal government reopened and NRCS staff returning to regular operations, this extension will help support thoughtful planning and complete submissions.

Eligible applicants include conservation districts, state or territory associations of conservation districts, conservation district's state or territory agencies, Resource Conservation & Development Councils, and Indian Tribal governments or intertribal consortia.

Learn more and submit your application here.

SEE MORE OF SAN ANTONIO WITH TOURS AND EVENTS

NACD invites you to join us in San Antonio, Texas, for the 2026 Annual Meeting! Hosted in partnership with the Association of Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts, our 80th meeting will take place on February 15-19, 2026, at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter.

Experience even more of what San Antonio has to offer by attending our tours and events during the meeting! Come with us to the following locations to see the culture and conservation of Texas up close.

San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo - Put on your boots, hats, and shiniest belt buckles for an evening at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo! This event is one of the largest and most famous events held annually in San Antonio since 1949, attracting 1.5 million visitors each year! Tickets for the event are $75/person.

Tour to San Antonio Food Bank's Farms - Tour the San Antonio Food Bank’s farms: their urban farm at their warehouse facility in San Antonio and their Mission San Juan farm, where they cultivate 50 acres in a unique partnership with the National Park Service. Crops are grown organically at both sites, and participants will see a steerable cultivator used as a weed suppression strategy and learn how the farms practice cover cropping and crop rotation. Tickets are $75/person.

Tour to the Natural Bridge Caverns and Historic Wimberly, Texas - Join the NACD Auxiliary/Partner group to explore the famous Hill Country! See firsthand the Natural Bridge Caverns, one of the world’s premier show caverns. Journey through the caverns and see spectacular formations and state-of-the-art lighting. Then, travel to the vibrant and charming historic town of Wimberly, Texas, to check out five artistic wonders. Attendees will spend time strolling through the art scene, shopping in unique galleries and boutiques, and experiencing the music. Tickets are $115/person. 

Grab your tour tickets when registering for Annual Meeting. Spots are limited, so act now! Plus, save up to $130 per registrant with our early bird offers, only through December 19.

WHAT'S UP IN WASHINGTON? GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS UPDATE

This week, the Trump administration is continuing to release information on the recently announced addition to the Farmer Bridge Assistance program, a $12 billion aid package intended to help producers in a time of rising input prices and spiraling commodity markets. Richard Fordyce, Under Secretary for the USDA Farm Production and Conservation Mission Area, shared some application specifics on Monday, advising producers to file their 2025 acreage reports by the end of the day on December 19, 2025. He also revealed that commodity-specific rates will be released later this month, with payments going out by February 28, 2026. NACD will continue to track programmatic details as they are released and will share an application link when available.

Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden has announced that the USDA reorganization, the highly publicized plan to move Washington, D.C. staff to five regional hubs, will be mostly completed by the end of 2026. The process will move over 2,000 employees to hubs located in Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Salt Lake City, Utah. While the move is intended to increase agency transparency and connection to producers nationwide, some groups have publicly raised concerns about the rollout and possible effects of the move.

NACD'S ADVOCACY STARTS WITH OUR POLICY BOOK

Did you know that one of NACD’s core functions is to advocate for policies that support conservation districts and our partners at the national level? NACD maintains a policy book - available on the Member's Only page - to inform all the legislative work NACD staff and board members carry out. Leadership uses the policy book to develop issue papers; committees and subcommittees reference it to guide their work; and policies are even used to prepare testimonies for Congress and letters to federal agencies and congressional representatives.

All of the resolutions in our policy book are submitted and voted on by NACD's Board of Directors. If you know of a national or significant regional problem that could be addressed by a change in NACD policy, you can submit a resolution for consideration by the full NACD Board of Directors. Resolutions that are passed by the Board will be adopted into our policy book so that NACD leaders and staff can begin to promote the positions with legislators and agency leadership.

State Associations, Regional Boards, the NACD Executive Board, NACD Standing Committees, and NACD Subcommittees can all submit resolutions directly to the Resolutions Committee. If you are a board member at a local conservation district and wish to participate in NACD’s policy process, your best course of action is to work with partners at your state association to draft and submit a resolution. If you are on an NACD committee or subcommittee, you can also raise any potential resolutions at your next meeting. Once one of the eligible groups passes a resolution, it can be submitted to the NACD Government Affairs team for consideration by the NACD Board of Directors.

At NACD's Annual Meeting, committees review and discuss these resolutions in real time. Later, the full Board of Directors reviews and votes on the resolutions. Then, the Government Affairs Team takes all of the new policies passed and integrates them into the policy book. Once resolutions are in our policy book, NACD leaders and staff can begin working towards goals related to these policies.

The resolutions submittal deadline to be considered at our 2026 Annual Meeting is December 31, 2025. If you have more questions about this process or would like help with writing and formatting a resolution, reach out to NACD Government Affairs Associate Connor Simons at connor-simons@nacdnet.org.

Read the full Did You Know? article on our blog or watch this Conservation Coffee to explain NACD advocacy and the resolutions process in more detail.