Join us in D.C. for NACD's 2025 Spring Fly-In on March 26!

Every year, NACD hosts members across the country as they come to advocate for natural resource conservation with their representatives. Advocating for conservation priorities and funding is especially critical right now, and we encourage all who can to make attending a priority this year. The morning will kick off with a Fly-In Breakfast Briefing, featuring various speakers, including Congressional members and NACD leadership. Then, after a day of meetings on Capitol Hill, members, NACD leadership, and government staff and representatives will reconvene for an evening reception.

The NACD Government Affairs team will hold two virtual advocacy training sessions on March 18 and 20 at 4:00 p.m. ET. These sessions will present the same information and provide time for members to review NACD's priorities, learn some tips and tricks for meeting with representatives, and ask the Government Affairs team any questions. You don't want to miss these sessions before making your trip to Washington. Select one time to attend. Registration details will be announced soon.

Stay tuned to our Fly-In page for a detailed agenda and 2025 Issue Papers.

NACD TEMPORARILY PAUSES URBAN AND COMMUNITY GRANT PROGRAM APPLICATIONS

NACD has paused applications for the 2025 Urban and Community grant program while we await further details on funding from our fiscal sponsor. Please stay tuned to our publications and our Urban and Community Conservation page for more information on a new application deadline. We will keep the RFP and FAQ on the website so districts can continue working on their application if they wish.

WHAT'S UP IN WASHINGTON?

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS UPDATE

NACD is continuing to work with USDA officials to understand the impacts of recent executive orders and advocate for expedited reimbursements to grantees and agreement holders, in concurrence with the administration’s review of contracts and financial assistance vehicles. Please see NACD’s most recent memo on administrative actions and press releases for more information and action items.

Over 300 members in 45 states and territories have already let us know how recent funding freezes and executive orders have impacted their local districts, employees, communities, and producers. Thank you to all who have shared! Please continue to fill out this survey to tell us how your district has been impacted. All responses are anonymous, and the survey should take 5-10 minutes to complete.

Congress must pass a full Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations bill or an additional continuing resolution before March 14 to prevent a government shutdown. NACD is continuing to advocate for our top appropriations’ priority, to increase funding for Conservation Technical Assistance in Fiscal Year 2025. Please visit NACD’s Fly-In Webpage for information about our upcoming advocacy event.

On Friday morning, the Senate passed a $500 billion budget resolution to support border security and the military by a vote of 52-48. This resolution is the first step in the budget reconciliation process. This week, the House is scheduled to consider their larger and broader budget resolution, which will also include tax cuts and changes.

CELEBRATING POSTER AND PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS

NACD announced the winners of the 2024 Poster and Photo Contests at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT. The photo contest, open to amateur photographers in both youth and adult divisions, attracted entries of images reflecting the themes of “Agriculture and Conservation Across America,” “Close-Up Conservation,” “Conservation in Action,” and “Conservation Practices.” The poster contest, open to students from kindergarten through 12th grade, celebrated the 2024 NACD Stewardship Week theme, “May the Forest Be With You, Always.” You can see a list of first place winners in this NACD press release and find all winners on NACD's Flickr page.

Already thinking about the NACD's 2025 Poster and Photo Contests? We've got you covered! You can find the updated rules and materials for both contests on the Poster and Photo Contests webpage. Whether you're 10 or 70, we want to see your photos. Show us what conservation looks like for you and participate in this year's photo contest! Young artists can also showcase their creativity while learning about conservation in this year's national Poster Contest.

This year's NACD Stewardship Theme is "Home is Where the Habitat Is," highlighting the essential role both natural and managed habitats play in supporting biodiversity and managing ecological balance. Learn more about this year's Stewardship theme and find educational materials on the NACD Stewardship and Education webpage.

LINCOLN COUNTY CD PROMOTES CONSERVATION WITH TA GRANT

Just north of Las Vegas, Nevada's Lincoln County is the seventh largest in the country. The county covers 10,637 square miles, 98% of which are public lands. Sparsely populated, producers in Lincoln County focus on the production of Alfalfa hay for dairies in neighboring California and graze livestock on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). In this desert climate, producers are challenged by drought and wildfires, which leave the land bare and prone to soil erosion after heavy rains.

To help producers address these challenges, the Lincoln County Conservation District leveraged NACD’s Technical Assistance (TA) Grants Program to hire staff to share information with producers about funding available through NRCS conservation programs and conservation practices to improve soil health and water quality. Through an agreement with NRCS, this program provides funding for conservation districts across the country to hire staff where additional capacity is needed to improve customer service and reduce workload pressure. With no employees in Lincoln County, NRCS leans on the Lincoln County Conservation District to help get the word out about opportunities to fund conservation through federal programs.

With staff hired with grant funding from the program, the Lincoln County Conservation District conducted outreach to raise awareness of good soil health practices and encourage producers to apply for funding to implement these practices through NRCS’ Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Producers with a permit to graze on BLM-managed land can apply for EQIP funding to implement conservation that benefits both these public lands and their operations. This use of EQIP funding on public lands for the benefit of both land and producers is established in NACD policy and the association’s federal advocacy efforts. At the local level, "working across ownership lines and melding funding are two ways conservation districts in Nevada can help," explained Maggie Orr, Vice Chair of the Lincoln County Conservation District.

The district has been “a trailblazer for getting Nevada involved in the NACD TA Grants Program and more,” said Rachel Theler, NACD’s Southwest Region Representative. To keep the momentum going and sustain continuity in services, the Lincoln County Conservation District continues to use the NACD TA Grants Program funding for staffing. The funding is a great help in their rural area, where meeting and sustaining staffing needs can be difficult. In a state with a high percentage of public lands, “the NACD grant funding helps us help NRCS and do larger work in a larger field,” said Orr.

Read the full story on NACD's blog.