Under the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership Initiative (JCI), NRCS and the US Forest Service are working together to target conservation and restoration to improve the health and resiliency of forest ecosystems where public and private lands meet.
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The Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership enables NRCS Caribbean Area, the US Forest Service State and Private Forestry programs of the International Institute of Tropical Forestry (IITF), and the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) Caribbean Field Office to collaborate with farmers and forest landowners to invest in conservation and restoration at a large enough scale to make a difference. Working in partnership, and at this scale, helps to reduce wildfire threats, protect water quality and supply, and improve wildlife habitat for at-risk species.
Two Joint Chiefs projects have been awarded in Puerto Rico to date:
Ecosystem Resilience Through Conservation Practices
Project partners will collaborate at a landscape scale to increase conservation actions on private lands to improve ecosystem function and health in 22 counties in eastern Puerto Rico.
Restore biological corridors, ecosystems post-María
The first Caribbean Joint Chiefs project was a reforestation project begun in December 2017 in the wake of the devastation wreaked by hurricanes Irma and María.
Asociación para la Restauración del Paisaje de los esfuerzos interagenciales
La Asociación para la Restauración del Paisaje de los Esfuerzos Interagenciales permite que el Área del Caribe del NRCS, los programas de silvicultura estatal y privada del Servicio Forestal de los EE. UU. del Instituto Internacional de Dasonomía Tropical (IITF) y la Oficina de Campo del Caribe del Servicio de Pesca y Vida Silvestre de los EE. UU. propietarios de tierras forestales a invertir en conservación y restauración a una escala lo suficientemente grande como para marcar la diferencia. Trabajar en asociación, y a esta escala, ayuda a reducir las amenazas de incendios forestales, proteger la calidad y el suministro de agua y mejorar el hábitat de la vida silvestre para las especies en riesgo.
Dos proyectos del Esfuerzos Interagenciales han sido adjudicados en Puerto Rico a la fecha:
- Proyecto para la Resiliencia del Ecosistema a través de prácticas de conservación en Puerto Rico
- Iniciativa de restauración a escala de paisaje para establecer corredores biológicos y restaurar la funcionalidad del ecosistema en seis cuencas hidrográficas de Puerto Rico afectadas por el huracán María
Ready 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.