Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
Have you ever looked across your property and thought about some land management goals you would like to take to the next level?
Maybe we can help.
No one knows more about your land than you do, and no one knows more about conservation than we do. Together we can develop a plan tailored to your land and your goals to help you increase productivity and protect the value of your land.
Our Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) helps you build on your existing conservation efforts while strengthening your operation. Whether you are looking to improve grazing conditions, increase crop yields, or develop wildlife habitat, we can custom design a CSP plan to help you meet those goals. We can help you schedule timely planting of cover crops, develop a grazing plan that will improve your forage base, implement no-till to reduce erosion or manage forested areas in a way that benefits wildlife habitat. If you are already taking steps to improve the condition of the land, chances are CSP can help you find new ways to meet your goals.
What is the Conservation Stewardship Program?
The Conservation Stewardship Program is a voluntary conservation program that helps agricultural producers maintain and improve their existing conservation systems and adopt additional conservation activities to address priority resources concerns. Participants earn CSP payments for conservation performance - the higher the performance, the higher the payment. Through CSP, participants take additional steps to improve the resource conditions on their land—including soil, air and habitat quality, water quality and quantity, and energy conservation.
National NRCS Conservation Stewardship Program Website
CSP program fact sheet
Eligibility/Requirements
Applicant Eligibility – Applicants may include individuals, legal entities, joint operations or Indian Tribes. All CSP applicants must meet the following eligibility requirements:
- Be listed as the operator in the USDA farm records management system for the operation being offered for enrollment.
- Document that they control the land for the term of the contract and include all eligible land in their entire operation in that contract.
- Comply with highly erodible land and wetland conservation provisions and comply with Adjusted Gross Income provisions.
- Comply with tenants & sharecroppers provision.
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Land Eligibility – CSP is available to all producers, regardless of operation size or type of crops produced. Eligible lands include private and Tribal agricultural lands (crop and pasture), nonindustrial private forest land (NIPF), associated agricultural land, and farmstead. Producers must have effective control of the land for the term of the proposed contract. Contracts must include all eligible land associated with the applicants agricultural or NIPF operation.
Stewardship Threshold Eligibility – NRCS will use the Conservation Activity Evaluation Tool (CAET) to determine whether or not the applicant is addressing resource concerns in order to meet the stewardship eligibility requirement.
An applicant’s conservation activities must meet or exceed the stewardship threshold on all land uses for both of the following:
- At least two resource concerns at the time of contract offer.
- At least one additional resource concern by the end of the conservation stewardship contract.
Additional restrictions and program requirements may apply.
Maine CStwP 2019-1 General Funding Period Fund Pools:
(Ag Lands = Agricultural Lands); (NIPF = Non-Industrial Private Forestland)
- Maine Statewide-Ag Lands Beginning Farmer
- Maine Statewide-Ag Lands Socially Disadvantaged
- Maine Statewide-Ag Lands General
- Maine Statewide-NIPF Beginning Farmer
- Maine Statewide-NIPF Socially Disadvantaged
- Maine Statewide-NIPF General
How to Apply
NRCS will accept CSP application on a continuous basis. Applicants must submit Form NRCS-CPA-1200, “Conservation Program Application,” and a map delineating the entire agricultural or Nonindustrial Private forest Land (NIPF) operation. Agricultural land applications will compete separately from NIPF applications. An applicant with both NIPF and agricultural land can submit one application for NIPF, one for agricultural land, or two applications (one for each land type). Applicants requesting consideration as a veteran, socially disadvantaged, or beginning farmer or rancher must self-certify by marking all applicable status boxes on Form NRCS-CPA-1200.
NOTE: NRCS policy requirement for conducting a 5% review of contracts obligated to Historically Underserved clients. In Maine, NRCS conducts this review in the first quarter of the fiscal year for the contracts obligated to Limited Resource, Beginning, and Veteran farmers in the prior fiscal year.
Two application types are:
Maine Statewide Ag Lands
Maine Statewide NIPF
The application batching period for funding consideration in fiscal year 2019 ends on May 10, 2019.
Targeted Resource Concerns
- Soil Erosion
- Soil Quality Degradation
- Water Quality Degradation
- Degraded Plant Condition
- Fish and Wildlife - Inadequate Habitat
CSP Conservation Activities
Applicants may adopt conservation activities (conservation practices, enhancements, or bundles) in order to meet or exceed a resource concern by the end of the conservation stewardship contract.
- Conservation practices must meet the criteria in the conservation practice standards and specifications available in the Field Office Technical Guide (FOTG).
- Enhancements are a conservation activity used to treat natural resource concerns and improve producer conservation performance. Enhancement adoption results in environmental benefits that are equal to or greater than the performance level for the planning criteria identified for a given resource concern.
- Enhancement Bundles are specific enhancements whose installation as a group produce conservation performance improvement and address resource concerns in a more comprehensive and cost-effective manner.
*Not all of the practices, enhancements and bundles on the national list are available for use in Maine.
Maine FY 19 Conservation Activity List
Maine Enhancement Compatibility Matrix
Participants must schedule, install and adopt at least one additional conservation activity on each land use type that is part of the operation. At least one conservation activity must be completed within the first 12 months of the contract.
Ranking
2019 Application Ranking Summary
Eligible applications that meet the stewardship threshold eligibility requirements will be ranked using the Application, Evaluation, and Ranking Tool (AERT). NRCS ranks CSP applications based on the following factors:
- Level of conservation treatment on all targeted resource concerns at the time of application.
- Degree to which proposed conservation activities effectively increase conservation performance.
- Number of, and extent to which, targeted and non-targeted resource concerns will be treated by the end of the contract.
FY19 Maine Statewide-Ag Lands Application and Ranking Summary
FY19 Maine Non-Industrial Private Forest Lands Application and Ranking Summary
Benefits to Participants
Subject to the availability of funds, participants will receive one payment per fiscal year of the contract, as soon as practicable after October 1, which includes:
- An annual payment for maintaining and managing existing conservation activities.
- Payments for installing and adopting additional conservation activities.
- Supplemental payments on cropland where a resource conserving crop rotation has been adopted or improved.
Payment for installing and adapting new conservation activities will be made in accordance with the current Fiscal Year Payment Schedule.
PLEASE NOTE: There may be more than one payment schedule developed for each of the NRCS-Maine Financial Assistance programs for particular funding pools. Multiple payment schedules are incorporated into a single payment schedule document for the program. You can identify the particular payment schedule you are interested in by the label in the lower left corner of each page.
Supplemental payment options exist for the implementation of resource-conserving crop rotation. A resource-conserving crop rotation is a rotation that includes at least one resource-conserving crop that reduces erosion, improves soil fertility and tilth, interrupts pest cycles in applicable areas, reduces depletion of soil moisture or otherwise reduces the need for irrigation, and may provide protection and habitat for pollinators. Maine’s Resource-Conserving Crops
In any fiscal year that a contract’s payment amount total is less than the fiscal year’s minimum contract payment rate, the payment for the fiscal year will be the minimum contract payment rate. For FY 19, the minimum contract payment rate is $1,500.
Payment Limit: Regardless of the number of contracts entered into under the program, a person or legal entity may not receive, directly or indirectly, payments that, in the aggregate, exceed $40,000 during any fiscal year for all conservation stewardship contracts entered into, and $200,000 under all conservation stewardship contracts entered into during fiscal years 2019 through 2023.
Program Contact
Susan Arrants, Assistant State Conservationist for Programs, (207) 990-9564, or email susan.arrants@me.usda.gov
05/13/19
