Oklahoma Healthy Soils RCPP Project -Agriculture producers and partners voluntarily drive the Oklahoma Healthy Soils project. The project will focus on the implementation of soil health practices on cropland with an emphasis on establishing cover crop on-farm trials across the state of Oklahoma. Historically underserved producers will be targeted for up to 20 percent of the on-farm trials. Demonstrating cover crop plantings on a field scale has the potential to deliver practical benefits to producers by evaluating field level data over a variety of soil types. Many producers already engaged in no-till or those interested in converting to no-till, have the potential to incorporate cover crops into their rotation. The Southern Plains Regional Climate Hub will assist in loaning scientific equipment to the project for testing and monitoring. The project will build upon ongoing research into practical concerns facing producers who may be contemplating incorporating cover crops into their agronomic production systems.
News Release- Funding available to Oklahoma Farmers for Oklahoma Area Conservation Districts (OACD) Oklahoma Healthy Soils Project - See News Release Here. Deadline for Submitting applications for the RCPP Oklahoma Soil Health Project is posted to the Oklahoma Area of Conservation Districts web page. Applicants must apply both with OACD and NRCS to be considered for the Oklahoma Soil Health Project.
Lead Partner: Oklahoma Area Conservation Districts
Middle and Lower Neosho River Basin Watershed RCPP Project- This project will pool Kansas and Oklahoma State and federal resources to address water quality concerns in the middle and lower Neosho River Basin, which affects water quality in downstream Grand Lake. Ten small watersheds, which water quality modeling has indicated are among the highest contributors to nutrient, sediment, and bacteria loading in Grand Lake, have been targeted for the program. The states will use in-stream water quality monitoring to evaluate program performance, along with watershed modeling, soil sampling, and soil carbon sequestration verification.
Lead partner: Oklahoma Conservation Commission, Water Quality Division
Our partnership will restore, manage and conserve wildlife habitat for monarch butterflies on agricultural and tribal lands using four main strategies: conservation planning and assessment; habitat improvement and best management practices; building an adequate seed supply for milkweed and nectar plants; and, enhancing organizational coordination and capacity. To provide the greatest conservation outcomes, the project will focus work within two NRCS Critical Conservation Areas: Prairie Grasslands Region and Mississippi River Basin. Targeted areas will be identified through a US Geological Survey-led initiative examining fine-scale opportunities for the restoration of milkweed and other pollinator plants. This project will contribute to national goals in terms of habitat and increase the number of monarch butterflies. This in turn will represent the best opportunity to avoid future regulations related to monarch butterflies from being imposed on farmers and ranchers in the future.
Lead Partner: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
As the impacts of climate change become more pronounced in Indian country, Native nations and Indian landowners are faced with the challenge of implementing resource conservation land management systems that incorporate greenhouse gas management activities, also known as carbon farming practices. As greenhouse gas management services gain value in environmental markets, it is vital that historically underserved tribal conservation programs and American Indian farmers and ranchers develop conservation projects that demonstrate causal relationships between soil quality and ecosystem production functions such as carbon sequestration. This project will address the need for conservation stewardship projects on American Indian lands that integrate a carbon farming production possibilities frontier component. The project area will be national in scope covering a diversity of tribal rangeland landscape types including Southwest Alaska, prairie grassland and Colorado River Basin regions. The project includes developing and implementing soil amendment, forestry and grazing management Conservation Activity Plans (CAP) and Conservation Stewardship Plans (CSP) on pilot project sites. The CAP/CSPs will establish a framework for inventorying the existing baseline carbon sequestration rate and propose cost-effective conservation practices to achieve multiple environmental quality and economic development goals. One of the anticipated outcomes from this project will be the development of carbon offsets from soil amendment and grazing land and livestock management activities. We will engage private investment in those pilot project sites that both meet investors and credit buyers’ interest in charismatic high-quality carbon offsets, and tribes’ interest in promoting appropriate conservation practices and economic development on Indian lands.
Lead Partner: Intertribal Agriculture Council
Native Grazing Lands Protection in the Plains
Native grasslands of the central Great Plains are some of the most majestic yet least conserved landscapes in North America. The project area for this proposed effort encompasses the most intact native grazing lands remaining in Kansas and Oklahoma, which provide critical habitat for a number of rare and sensitive species, including the lesser prairie-chicken. By applying conservation easements and practices on native grazing lands, this project aims to prevent habitat fragmentation and conversion to non-grazing uses, improve wildlife habitat and reduce the spread of invasive species. One innovative component of this proposal will include working with Kansas State University to better quantify the changes in stream base flows following eastern red cedar removal in adjacent riparian areas and uplands. It is anticipated that approximately 12,000 acres of grazing lands will be protected via conservation easements and EQIP conservation practices will be delivered on over 40,000 acres.
