The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is NRCS’ flagship conservation program that helps farmers, ranchers and forest landowners integrate conservation into working lands.
Wildlife habitat management is important in reducing threats to wildlife due to habitat loss, disease, and invasive species. Through EQIP, NRCS is helping private landowners manage existing cropland, forestland and pasture to best meet wildlife habitat needs, or establish new wildlife habitat areas.
Current habitat conditions on your land will be evaluated by NRCS to determine a plan for restoration. Plans with the largest impact on and benefit to wildlife habitat will be prioritized for funding.
EQIP provides payments to restore and manage wildlife habitat through conservation practices such as:
- Aquatic Organism Passage
- Conservation Cover
- Early Successional Habitat Development and Management
- Field Border
- Hedgerows
- Prescribed Burning
- Riparian Buffers
- Stream Habitat Improvement and Management
- Upland or Wetland Wildlife Habitat Management
- And many more!
Program Contacts
Mikel Williams Hawkins
Farm Bill Specialist
Phone: 443.482.2923
Email: mikel.williams@usda.gov
Julie Devers
State Biologist
Phone: 443-482-2925
Email: julie.devers@usda.gov
Additional Information
Environmental Quality Incentives Program - Maryland
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) provides financial and technical assistance to agricultural and forestry producers to address natural resource concerns and deliver environmental benefits.
Learn MoreAgricultural Conservation Easement Program - Maryland
The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) provides financial and technical assistance to help conserve agricultural lands and wetlands and their related benefits.
Learn MoreReady to get started?
Contact your local service center to start your application.
How to Get Assistance
Do you farm or ranch and want to make improvements to the land that you own or lease?
Natural Resources Conservation Service offers technical and financial assistance to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners.
To get started with NRCS, we recommend you stop by your local NRCS field office. We’ll discuss your vision for your land.
NRCS provides landowners with free technical assistance, or advice, for their land. Common technical assistance includes: resource assessment, practice design and resource monitoring. Your conservation planner will help you determine if financial assistance is right for you.
We’ll walk you through the application process. To get started on applying for financial assistance, we’ll work with you:
- To fill out an AD 1026, which ensures a conservation plan is in place before lands with highly erodible soils are farmed. It also ensures that identified wetland areas are protected.
- To meet other eligibility certifications.
Once complete, we’ll work with you on the application, or CPA 1200.
Applications for most programs are accepted on a continuous basis, but they’re considered for funding in different ranking periods. Be sure to ask your local NRCS district conservationist about the deadline for the ranking period to ensure you turn in your application in time.
As part of the application process, we’ll check to see if you are eligible. To do this, you’ll need to bring:
- An official tax ID (Social Security number or an employer ID)
- A property deed or lease agreement to show you have control of the property; and
- A farm number.
If you don’t have a farm number, you can get one from USDA’s Farm Service Agency. Typically, the local FSA office is located in the same building as the local NRCS office. You only need a farm number if you’re interested in financial assistance.
NRCS will take a look at the applications and rank them according to local resource concerns, the amount of conservation benefits the work will provide and the needs of applicants. View Application Ranking Dates by State.
If you’re selected, you can choose whether to sign the contract for the work to be done.
Once you sign the contract, you’ll be provided standards and specifications for completing the practice or practices, and then you will have a specified amount of time to implement. Once the work is implemented and inspected, you’ll be paid the rate of compensation for the work if it meets NRCS standards and specifications.