NRCS Conservation Programs

California

NRCS's natural resources conservation programs help people reduce soil erosion, enhance water supplies, improve water quality, increase wildlife habitat, and reduce damages caused by floods and other natural disasters. Public benefits include enhanced natural resources that help sustain agricultural productivity and environmental quality while supporting continued economic development, recreation, and scenic beauty.

The Agricultural Act of 2014 (enacted on February 7, 2014) made several changes to the Conservation Programs reported here. The Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP), Grassland Reserve Program (GRP), and Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) were merged into the new Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). The Agricultural Water Enhancement Program (AWEP) and Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative (CBWI) were merged into the new Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). The Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) was merged into the existing Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). To learn more see NRCS Conservation Programs.

Financial Information: Total Obligations | Technical Assistance | Financial Assistance | Reimbursable
Conservation Practice Implementation Reports: by Conservation Program |
by Conservation Practices related to: Cropland Soil Quality | Cropland Soil Health & Sustainability | Cropland Soil Health Management System (SHMS) | Fish & Wildlife Habitat | Forest Land Conservation | Grazing Land Conservation | Irrigation Efficiency | Water Quality | Wetlands
CSP Enhancement Summary | EQIP Enhancement Summary -- To learn more about CSP and EQIP bundles and enhancements, please see CSP Enhancements and Bundles

Financial Information

The Financial Information section presents data from the USDA Office of the Chief Financial Officer's Financial Management Modernization Initiative (FMMI) system and its predecessor, the Foundation Financial Information System (FFIS). The Financial Information presented here is Total Obligations which the Government Accountability Office defines as binding agreements (orders placed, contracts awarded, services rendered, etc.) that will result in outlays, immediately or in the future. Before obligations can be incurred, budgetary resources must be made available by Congress. The obligations displayed for each year are the total obligations reported as of the end of each fiscal year. Subsequent adjustments after the close of the fiscal year are not included.

There are three categories of Total Obligations presented below:

• Technical Assistance (TA) refers to the scientific expertise, natural resource data, tools, and technology that USDA personnel provide to help producers, landowners, and communities develop conservation plans and implement conservation practices to solve natural resource problems at the field, operation, or larger landscape scales. NRCS is the Federal lead for providing technical assistance for USDA and does so through various programs using NRCS staff and private Technical Service Providers (TSPs).
  
• Financial Assistance (FA) denotes payments (cost-share payments, easement payments, rental payments, etc.) that help producers and landowners pay the costs of implementing conservation measures, which can provide both on-site and off-site conservation benefits.
  
• Reimbursable funds can be for Technical or Financial Assistance but are received from sources other than appropriations. They can also be transfers from other Federal agencies.
  

Conservation Practice Implementation Reports

Conservation practices are planned and applied at the land unit level. The land unit is the smallest unit of land that has a permanent or contiguous boundary, a common land cover and land management, and a common owner or a common producer. The following chart/table combinations include data for the time period from fiscal year 2005 through fiscal year 2022. Data entry processes differed prior to 2005 and do not provide comparable data.

This RCA release uses an updated field definition. Heretofore the National Planning and Agreements Database (NPAD) Land Unit Id was used to represent fields wherever estimates of unique acres treated were required. This identifier is found in the planning land unit database layer. However, since conservation plans are often updated as producers’ conservation decisions evolve over time, there can be multiple land unit identifiers associated with the same field in NPAD. This can result in overestimating the number of fields and the associated unique acres. The Resource Analytics Lab has used GIS to develop a shape based algorithm to eliminate the overcounting of fields by selecting the single best shape out of the multiple shape based identifiers associated with the same field.

Under the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), practice bundles and practice enhancements are funded in addition to conservation practices. For brevity, conservation practices, bundles, and enhancements are often referred to collectively as “practices”. To learn more about CSP bundles and enhancements, please see CSP Enhancements and Bundles

As conservation practices are measured in different units (acres, feet, square feet, etc.), the challenge for reporting performance at various levels is how to aggregate across practices. Although practices may affect resources beyond the land unit boundary, or be applied only on part of the land unit, the land unit does provide a common metric to aggregate over practices since each applied practice is associated with a specific land unit. Analysis of the data reveals that most practices are measured in acres and most of the practice applied amounts match the land unit acres of the field on which the practice was applied. Therefore, land unit acreage is the metric on which the acres of land receiving conservation treatment are calculated. With the exception of CSP, totals presented here are not comparable to program enrollment acres or contract acres.

Acres Receiving Conservation by Program

The following chart/table combination summarizes acres receiving conservation by program and fiscal year. For the Conservation Stewardship Program, FY 2010-FY 2020 acres represent contract acres and count represents contracts in the fiscal year, excluding renewal contracts. Starting in FY 2021 CSP and all other programs, acres represent land unit acres and count represents practice counts. Here, land unit acres are counted once for each conservation program that has been used to apply one or more practices on that land unit in a given fiscal year. Therefore, land unit acres may be counted multiple times within each fiscal year - once for each program that has been used to apply at least one practice. Land unit acres may also be counted multiple times across fiscal years.

Only programs representing a significant portion of the total for the period are included in the above chart. If applicable, programs not included are summed into the All Other category.

Land Unit Acres Receiving Conservation

The following table summarizes the land units treated in a fiscal year. Here, a land unit is counted only once in a fiscal year, regardless of how many practices were applied on it, or how many conservation programs were used to apply practices. These data therefore reflect the geographic extent of the land treated with conservation practices during a fiscal year. Given that multiple conservation programs can be used to treat the resource concerns associated with a specific land unit, the percentage of land units (acres and number) that are treated by more than one conservation program within a fiscal year is also shown.

Land Unit Acres Receiving Conservation by Practice

The following set of chart/table combinations present the conservation practice data grouped by purpose: Cropland Soil Quality, Cropland Soil Health, Cropland with Applied Soil Health Management System (SHMS), Fish & Wildlife Habitat, Forest Land Conservation, Grazing Land Conservation, Irrigation Efficiency, Water Quality, and Wetlands. Any practices not included in one of these groups are included in an All Other category. Data for practices in the All Other category can be downloaded in the Conservation Programs Profile csv file.

Note that there is some overlap between these groupings, since some practices address multiple resource concerns. Here land unit acres are counted each time a practice is applied on that land unit in the fiscal year. Therefore land unit acres may be counted multiple times across practices, practice groupings, and fiscal years.
To learn more about specific conservation practices, see the National Handbook of Conservation Practices.
To learn more about CSP bundles and enhancements, please see CSP Enhancements and Bundles

Conservation Practices Related to Cropland Soil Quality

The following chart and table includes practices that are related to Cropland Soil Quality Management. The six components of soil quality management are: enhancing organic matter, avoiding excessive tillage, managing pests and nutrients efficiently, preventing soil compaction, keeping the ground covered, and diversifying cropping systems. Choosing specific practices within each component depends on the situation since different types of soil respond differently to the same practice. Each combination of soil type and land use calls for a different set of practices to enhance soil quality. Note that only practices applied on cropland or hay land are included.

Only practices representing a significant portion of the total for the period are included in the above chart. If applicable, practices not included are summed into the All Other category.