Agriculture Secretary Announces Private Forest Lands Conservation Projects

Today Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the projects that will be funded in fiscal year 2010 by the Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI).

The Department plans to spend a total of nearly $7 million on 26 projects in 15 states, including California.  All CCPI projects involve partners, such as states, local governments, agricultural and other non-governmental associations, seeking to expand or improve the conservation practices used on agricultural and nonindustrial private forest lands.  The partner organizations applied to the CCPI program this spring.

CPPI is administered by the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), which provides technical assistance for the projects and determines which farmers and ranchers (“producers”) may participate in the projects.  Now that the partners have been chosen, producers may apply to their local NRCS offices to be included in the projects.

According to the USDA, “These farmers and ranchers can use this assistance to address conservation priorities; meet federal, state, and local regulatory requirements related to production; cooperate to install and maintain conservation practices; and develop and demonstrate innovative conservation practices and delivery methods.”

Seven of the announced project areas are located in California, which is more than in any other state.  The funding for these projects is set at $2,495,017.

The USDA’s press release is available here.

The USDA’s CCPI website has more information about the program and its history.