Overview of USDA –

NRCS Conservation 

Programs

Rob McAfee 

NRCS Chesapeake Bay Coordinator 
NRCS- Born in response to a National Tragedy

“Soil Conservation Act” of 1935 

created Soil Conservation Service
Who is NRCS Now?

 11,000 employees, 92% in county/field offices

 Most staff trained in soils, agronomy, range, 

engineering, biologists (including partners)

 Private lands focus (70% of U.S.)

 Voluntary programs

 Science based conservation planning 
Conservation Operations

 Conservation Technical Assistance

 Soil Survey

 Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasts

 Plant Material Centers

 National Resources Inventory (NRI) and 

Conservation Effects Assessment Project 

(CEAP)
Conservation Technical 

Assistance CTA

 CTA is the help NRCS and its partners provide 

to land users to address opportunities, concerns, 

and problems related to the use of natural 

resources and to help land users make sound 

natural resource management decisions on 

private, tribal, and other non-federal lands.

 First 7 steps of planning process
NRCS Farm Bill Program Delivery

Working Lands Programs

• Conservation practices on ground –

cost-share and planning
Environmental Quality Incentives 

Program (EQIP)

• EQIP provides technical and financial assistance 

to implement conservation practices that 

optimize environmental benefit while promoting 

agricultural production, forest management, and 

environmental quality as compatible goals.

 FY 2010 Authorized $1,450,000,000
EQIP National Priorities

• Reduction of nonpoint source pollution, such as 

nutrients, sediment, pesticides, or excess salinity 

in impaired watersheds

• Conservation of ground and surface water 

resources

• Reduction of emissions that contribute to air 

quality impairment

• Reduction in soil erosion and sedimentation

• Promotion of at-risk species habitat
National EQIP Initiatives and 

Statute Supported Programs

 Agricultural Water Enhancement Program 

(AWEP) 

 EQIP Conservation Activity Plans (CAP) 

 Colorado River Basin Salinity Project 

 Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) 

 Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative 

(CCPI) 

 Klamath Basin River Activities 

 Organic Program Initiative 
Agricultural Water Enhancement 

Program (AWEP)

 NRCS enters into partnership agreements with 

eligible entities and organizations that want to 

promote ground and surface water conservation 

or improve water quality on agricultural lands.

 FY 2010 Authorized $73 million

 Focus on water quantity and quality.

 Leverage partner abilities
Agricultural Water Enhancement Program 

(AWEP)

AWEP Priority Areas

Slide 11

•Eastern Snake Plains 

Aquifer

•Everglades 

•Ogallala Aquifer

•Puget Sound 

•Sacramento

•River Basin Red River 

•Upper Mississippi River 

Basin
Conservation Innovation Grants 

(CIG)

 Under CIG, EQIP funds are used to award 

competitive grants to non-Federal governmental or 

non-governmental organizations, Tribes, or 

individuals.

 Accelerate technology transfer and adoption of 

promising technologies and approaches to address 

some of the Nation's most pressing natural resource 

concerns.

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CIG

 National

 Chesapeake and Mississippi River Basin

 State Specific

 FY 2010 $25 million available

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Cooperative Conservation 

Partnership Initiative (CCPI) 

 The Farm Bill requires that 6 percent of the 

funds for EQIP and WHIP and 6 percent of the 

allowed acres for the CSP programs be reserved 

for support of producer contracts approved 

under this authority. 

14
Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative 

(CCPI) 

Slide 15

CCPI is a voluntary conservation initiative that 

enables the use of certain conservation programs 

(EQIP, WHIP, and CSP) along with resource of

eligible partners to provide financial and technical 

assistance to owners and operators of agricultural 

and nonindustrial private forest lands. 
Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative 

(CCPI) 

Slide 16

An eligible entity may apply for and be granted a 

CCPI project on behalf of a group of agricultural 

producers. An eligible entity may be a Federallyrecognized Tribe, State, unit of local government, 

agricultural or silvicultural association, or other 

such group of agricultural producers. 
Agricultural Management Assistance (AMA)

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AMA provides financial assistance through long term contracts to 

agricultural producers on private lands to:

• Construct or improve water management or irrigation 

structures

• Plant trees to form windbreaks or to improve water quality

• Mitigate financial risks through the implementation of

resource conservation practices including soil erosion control, 

integrated pest management or the transition to organic 

farming
Agricultural Management Assistance (AMA)

 AMA is available in 16 states:

 Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine

 Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire

 New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island

 Utah, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming

• FY 2010, apportionment $7.5 million 

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Wildlife Habitat Incentive 

Program (WHIP)

 The purpose of WHIP is to help participants 

develop fish and wildlife habitat on private 

agricultural land, nonindustrial private forest 

land, and Tribal lands.

 FY10 Authorized $85 million

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WHIP National Priorities

 Promote the restoration of declining or important native fish 

and wildlife habitats.

 Protect, restore, develop, or enhance fish and wildlife habitat to 

benefit at-risk species.

 Reduce the impacts of invasive species on fish and wildlife 

habitats.

 Protect, restore, develop, or enhance declining or important 

aquatic wildlife species’ habitats.

 Protect, restore, develop, or enhance important migration and 

other movement corridors for wildlife.

Slide 20
NRCS Farm Bill Program Delivery

Working Lands Programs

Natural Resource Protection with Agricultural use 

retention (FRPP, GRP, HFRP)
Farm and Ranch Land Protection 

Program (FRPP)

 FRPP: established to help farmers and 

ranchers keep their land in ag production.

 Provides matching funds to State, Tribal, 

or local governments and 

nongovernmental organizations with 

existing farm and ranch land protection 

programs to purchase permanent 

conservation easements. 
FRPP

 Participating landowners agree to keep 

their land in ag uses and to develop and 

implement a conservation plan for any 

highly erodible land. 

 2008 FB revised the program authority 

from purchasing conservation easements 

to facilitating the purchase of conservation
FRPP

 NRCS has enrolled a total of 809,098 

acres on 3,495 farms. 

 For every Federal dollar expended, 

cooperating entities and landowners 

contributed an additional $1.88 
Grassland Reserve Program

 Voluntary program that places an 

emphasis on supporting grazing 

operations, plant and animal biodiversity, 

and grassland and land containing shrubs 

or forbs under the greatest threat of 

conversion.

 Provides financial assistance in the form of 

easement, rental contract, and cost-share 

payments for restoration. 
GRP

 10, 15, 20 year rental contracts – and 

permanent easements through 

cooperative agreements with eligible 

entities

 At the end of FY 2010 627,870 acres were 

enrolled toward the 1.22 million cap.

 Priority given to acres coming out of CRP
Healthy Forest Reserve Program

(HFRP)

 HFRP: Purpose- to restore and enhance 

forest ecosystems to promote the recovery 

of threatened and endangered species, 

improve biodiversity, and enhance carbon 

sequestration. 

 Provides financial assistance in the form of 

easement, contract, and cost-share 

payments for specific conservation actions 

completed by the landowner.
HFRP

 Arkansas 

 Mississippi 

 Oklahoma 

 Maine 

 Oregon 
NRCS Farm Bill Program Delivery

Natural Resource Protection & Restoration 

Programs

• Easements and long-term contracts (WRP) 

Before

After
NRCS Farm Bill Program Delivery

Land Stewardship (CSP)

 CSP encourages producers to address resource 

concerns in a comprehensive manner by:

 Improving, maintaining, and managing existing 

conservation activities; and 

 Undertaking additional conservation 

activities 
NRCS Program Delivery

4. NRCS Landscape Initiatives FY2011 Programs

Bay Delta various

Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative EQIP-CCPI, WHIP-CCPI

Great Lakes Restoration Initiative EQIP, CTA, WHIP

Illinois River and Eucha-Spavinaw Lake Initiative EQIP

Lesser Prairie Chicken EQIP, WHIP

Longleaf Pine Initiative WHIP

Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative EQIP, WRP, WHIP

Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watershed Initiative CCPI-EQIP, WHIP, CSP, WREP

New England Forestry Initiative WHIP

Sage-Grouse Initiative EQIP, WHIP, WRP

* Programs may change
NRCS Landscape Initiatives 

Chesapeake Bay Watershed 

•Executive order directs USDA to “target resources to better protect the 

Bay and its rivers, particularly in agricultural conservation practices”

• CBWI $34 million in FA obligated in FY2010
NRCS Landscape Initiatives 

Protecting Sage Grouse

• Populations and habitat declining in 11 Western states

• Provide certainty to participants if sage grouse is ESA listed

• Over $18 million in FA obligated in FY10 (EQIP, WHIP)
•Goal is to help 50 million birds coming down 

the Mississippi alluvial every year

• 471,000 acres enrolled in FY2010

• $40 million (EQIP, WHIP, WRP)

NRCS Landscape Initiatives 

Migratory Bird Habitat

South central Louisiana lands before 

flooding

After 

flooding
Before

After – year 4

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/