Natural Disaster 

Recovery Assistance

After Disaster Strikes

From floods to drought, fire or hurricanes, 

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation 

Service (NRCS) provides disaster recovery 

assistance to farmers, ranchers, landowners 

and communities through a variety of 

conservation programs. 

NRCS offers technical and financial 

assistance to help producers recover from 

natural disasters like floods, hurricanes, 

wildfires and drought, and also assists 

communities with post disaster restoration 

projects, through conservation programs, 

primarily including the Environmental 

Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and

the Emergency Watershed Protection 

Program (EWP).

Disaster Resources are 

Available

EQIP provides agricultural producers with 

financial resources and one on-one help 

to plan and implement improvements on 

the land, including financial assistance 

to repair and prevent the excessive soil 

erosion caused by natural disasters. These 

practices include stream bank restoration, 

grassed waterways and buffers. NRCS 

conservation practices can help prevent 

erosion, support disaster recovery and 

repair, and can help mitigate loss from 

future natural disasters. Assistance may 

also be available for emergency animal 

mortality disposal from natural disasters 

and other causes. 

EWP Assistance

EWP helps communities with restoration 

after disaster strikes. EWP provides financial 

and technical assistance for projects where 

the damage caused in the aftermath of a 

disaster, poses an imminent threat to life, 

property or both.

Declaring Natural 

Disasters

EWP does not require a disaster 

declaration by federal or state government 

officials for program assistance to begin. 

The NRCS State Conservationist can 

declare a local watershed emergency and 

initiate EWP assistance in cooperation 

with an eligible sponsor. 

Types of Natural 

Disasters

NRCS disaster assistance and emergency 

assistance programs help agricultural 

producers and communities recover from 

losses or damages to natural resources, 

crop land, infrastructure and livestock, 

and to build long-term resilience to 

disasters and emergencies. 

Below are weather-related and geological 

disasters with the resource concerns 

related to the disaster type.

• Weather disasters – includes extreme 

drought, flood, blizzard, hurricane and 

typhoon, tornado, lightening and ice.

Resource concerns related to weather 

disasters include:

• Mud slides 

• Fire

• Erosion

• Floods

• Poor water quality

• Degraded air quality

• Acid rain

• Saltwater intrusion

How to Address 

Resource Concerns

Through EQIP, any 

conservation practice that 

is needed to address a 

priority resource may be 

eligible. This could include 

adding new practices to 

your operation or repairing 

a failed practice, like flood 

damaged fencing, from a 

previous EQIP contract. In 

some cases, a new contract 

is not required. Producers 

may be able to add a 

practice to your existing 

EQIP contract through a 

modification. However, 

conservation practices 

included in the EQIP disaster 

funding are tailored to the 

type of disaster.

JUNE 2023 Helping People Help the Land nrcs.usda.gov

• Geological disasters include volcano, 

earthquake, and tsunami. Resource 

concerns related to geologic 

disasters, include:

• Loss of land 

• Change in hydrology 

In addition, there is no 

prescribed list of 

construction practices for 

EWP. Each case is 

investigated to determine 

the project’s requirements. 

All projects must reduce 

threats to life and property, 

be economically, 

environmentally, and socially 

sound, and designed to NRCS 

engineering standards.
NATURAL DISASTER RECOVERY ASSISTANCE THROUGH EQIP 2

How to Build 

Resiliency and 

Mitigate Damages

NRCS offers free technical assistance 

and some financial assistance to plan 

and implement conservation practices 

on farms, ranches and working forests 

impacted by natural disasters. 

Through Conservation Technical 

Assistance (CTA), agricultural 

producers can work with NRCS 

to develop a conservation plan 

that incorporates suggested 

conservation practices that can 

help producers and communities 

address significant challenges 

created by natural disasters.

Producers can also apply for financial 

assistance to receive help with 

installing the conservation practices 

outlined in their conservation plan.

In addition, NRCS offers financial 

assistance programs that are not 

specific to disaster and emergency 

assistance, that can still help restore 

working landscapes impacted by 

natural disasters. These financial 

assistance programs include:

• AMA is limited to the following 

states: Connecticut, Delaware, 

Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, 

Massachusetts, Nevada, New 

Hampshire, New Jersey, New 

York, Pennsylvania, Rhode 

Island, Utah, Vermont, West 

Virginia and Wyoming. 

• The Conservation Stewardship 

Program offers technical and 

financial assistance to help 

agricultural producers and 

forest landowners take their 

conservation efforts to the next 

level by adopting additional 

conservation activities and 

maintaining their baseline level 

of conservation.

• The Resource Conservation 

Partnership Program co-invests 

with partners to implement 

projects that demonstrate 

innovative solutions to 

conservation challenges and 

provide measurable improvements 

and outcomes tied to the resource 

concerns they seek to address.

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender. nrcs.usda.gov

For More Information

Producers can contact their local 

NRCS office or go to www.nrcs.usda.

gov. • The Agricultural Management 

Assistance (AMA), where 

available, helps agricultural 

producers manage financial risk 

through diversification, marketing 

or natural resource conservation 

practices, such as animal waste 

management facilities, irrigation 

system efficiency improvements, 

fencing, water supply 

development, riparian protection 

and wildlife habitat enhancement.