Description
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: NRCS is the Department of Agricultures (USDA) conservation agency working with farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners nationwide to identify and address natural resource objectives and implement conservation practices and activities to deliver environmental benefits locally, regionally, and nationally. Through the new Farm Bill, NRCS has been given the authority to enhance regional cooperation to more effectively implement and maintain conservation activities, thereby promoting the restoration and sustainable use of soil, water, wildlife, and related natural resources on regional or watershed scales. Through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), NRCS will co-invest in mobilizing creative and workable solutions to agricultural production and resource management challenges. These solutions will benefit not only individual farming, ranching, and forest operations, but also local economies and the communities and resource users in a watershed or other geographic area that depend on the quality of the natural resources. Through RCPP, NRCS will increase the opportunity for partners to bring innovative ideas and resources to accelerate conservation on private lands. RCPP partners will have the opportunity to join in this mission by developing project applications, as described in this notice, to address specific natural resource objectives in a proposed area or region. Partners will commit to activities to promote, implement, and evaluate the outcomes of conservation. RCPP combines the authorities of four former conservation programs the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program, Chesapeake Bay Watershed Program, Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI), and Great Lakes Basin Program. Assistance is delivered in accordance with the rules of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), and Healthy Forests Reserve Program (HFRP), and in certain areas, the Watershed Operations and Flood Prevention Program. The purpose of this notice is to announce the availability of nearly $400 million in CCC funding for RCPP and to solicit applications from potential partners who seek to enter into partnership agreements with NRCS under RCPP. Partners will work with producers and landowners to promote the restoration and sustainable use of natural resources on regional or watershed scales. Applications will be accepted from all 50 States, the Caribbean Area (Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands), and U.S. territories in the Pacific Island Areas (Guam, American Samoa, Republic of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Marshall Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). CFDA number 10.930