NRCS Oregon Awards Three New RCPP Projects to Receive $17.2M as Part of Unprecedented $1 Billion National Investment

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced an unprecedented $1 billion investment for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) to advance partner-driven solutions to conservation on agricultural land through 81 projects across the nation. The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Oregon awarded three new RCPP projects for $17.2M. 

RCPP leverages a voluntary approach to conservation that expands the reach of conservation efforts and climate-smart agriculture through public-private partnerships. Historic funding is made possible by both the Inflation Reduction Act, part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, and the Farm Bill. 

In Oregon, there are two new projects where NRCS Oregon is the lead in working with partners: 

Restoring, Protecting, and Supporting Tribal Connection to Native Oak Habitat
Lead Partner: Oregon Agricultural Trust
Total Funding Request: $9,232,000
Project Description: Oregon’s biodiverse oak savannas and woodlands hold immense ecocultural value. This project’s three interrelated goals are to 1) restore native oak habitat by reintroducing traditional disturbance regimes, 2) permanently protect private agricultural lands with associated oak habitats from development and fragmentation and 3) facilitate access to restored and protected properties for Native people for harvest, cultural purposes and stewardship. The Oregon Agriculture Trust’s priority area for this project are Oregon’s Lane and Linn Counties in the Upper Willamette Valley.

Oregon Dairy Climate and Water Quality Partnership
Lead Partner: Tillamook County Creamery Association
Total Funding Request: $4,000,000
Project Description: The Oregon Dairy Climate and Water Quality Partnership project will assist dairy producers in Clatsop and Tillamook, OR counties interested in adopting NRCS conservation practices focused on manure management. By enrolling 22+ producers representing a target of 10,000 cows this project will result in lasting improvements to water quality of impaired watersheds by tracking reductions of bacterial loads caused from livestock and field runoff. This will also result in reduced methane emissions by approximately 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalents.

Oregon is working with NRCS Montana and Colorado on one project, with NRCS Montana as the lead in working with partners:

Stewarding the Working Wild in MT, OR, and CO: Non-lethal Predator Risk Management on Agriculture Operations
Lead Partner: Heart of the Rockies Initiative
Total Funding Request: $16,664,634 (Oregon will receive approximately $4M in Financial Assistance)
Project Description: The Stewarding the Working Wild project will help producers address some of the many threats they currently face, including drought, soil degradation, invasive species, wildlife displacement, conversion pressure, and commodity market fluctuations. The Heart of the Rockies Initiative, and other contributing partners will provide a holistic approach to incentivize producers to implement solutions that benefit land, livestock, and wildlife. This project will support the biologically diverse working lands that produce food and fiber, sustaining both rural and urban communities; enhance ecosystem services including clean water, biodiversity, and carbon storage; and maintain connected lands that provide essential habitat and migratory corridors.

The Farm Bill and Inflation Reduction Act provided funding for this year’s RCPP projects. 

With this $1.1 billion investment, NRCS has more than doubled the initial allocation for 2023 to capitalize on the unprecedented demand for RCPP and ensure project partners have the maximum amount of time to successfully implement conservation activities before funds expire in fiscal year 2031. Nationwide, there are: 

• 77 climate-focused projects ($1.02 billion in funding).  
• Twenty-two projects focused on water quantity and conservation (more than $338 million in funding).  
• Three RCPP Classic projects are led by Tribes (more than $58 million in funding).  
• Sixteen projects support the protection and restoration of wildlife corridors ($216 million in funding).  
• Ten projects focus on urban agriculture ($123 million in funding).

For a full list of selected projects visit our website.  
 
Since inception, RCPP has made 717 awards involving over 4,000 partner organizations. 

Inflation Reduction Act Boosts Voluntary Conservation Programs

Through the Inflation Reduction Act, USDA has enrolled more farmers and more acres in voluntary conservation programs than at any point in history, following a backlog that has existed for years. In 2023, USDA enrolled nearly 5,300 additional producers in conservation programs across all 50 states (above what otherwise would have been possible through Farm Bill and appropriations funding), which will provide significant climate mitigation benefits. This includes:

• $100 million through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP);
• $250 million through the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP); and
• $250 million through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

RCPP Improvements 

NRCS has identified ways to streamline and simplify RCPP, ease the burden on employees and partners, and help maximize flexibility for partners to leverage their investments with NRCS resources and capabilities.  

Through a concerted effort over the past eight months, using guidance, feedback and expertise from partners, employees, leadership and stakeholders, NRCS has identified several improvements that the agency will implement in the months and years ahead. 

Improvements include: 

• Streamlining RCPP agreements for fiscal year 2023 awards and moving to one programmatic agreement to begin implementing the RCPP projects awarded under the fiscal year 2024 notice of funding opportunity. This will allow partners to more quickly begin implementation of their RCPP projects. 
• Entrusting program management and negotiation to the State Conservationists, who lead NRCS programs in each state, further encouraging the locally led process and ensuring the necessary technical needs and costs were realized before project proposal submission. 
• Establishing parameters and expectations for easement negotiations, including availability of easement deed templates and established program processes to reduce partnership agreement negotiation and implementation timeframes. 
• Improving RCPP guidance and training, ensuring RCPP policies and procedures are communicated in a uniform and consistent manner. 
• Enhancing existing business tools to improve the user experience while beginning development of new business tools that, through integration and automation, will reduce the time required for agreement negotiation, processing obligations and making payments to partners. 

For the full list of RCPP improvements NRCS has identified for future implementation, visit our website.  

Once improvements have been implemented, NRCS estimated that the negotiation time of RCPP agreements with U.S.-held easement activities will be reduced from 15 months to three months, and from 19 months to three months with entity-held easement activities.

The RCPP improvements are coming at a critical time, as they will strengthen NRCS’ ability to implement the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided $4.95 billion in additional funding for the program over five years.   

More Information 

In total, the Inflation Reduction Act provides $19.5 billion over five years to support USDA’s oversubscribed conservation programs, and it represents the single largest investment in climate and clean energy solutions in American history. 

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.