Deadline: 20-Apr-21
The NRCS – Arkansas State Office, an agency under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is seeking support from and opportunities to partner with like-minded natural resource conservation partners.
The purpose of this announcement is to advertise opportunities to parties who are interested in partnering with NRCS to provide technical services to address the key conservation objectives and focus areas described below. NRCS will accept applications under this notice for single or multiyear applications submitted by eligible entities based in or with substantial operations in Arkansas.
Conservation partners are invited to apply for NRCS assistance with the following key conservation objectives:
- Projects that will provide technical services related to any of the following Arkansas state resource priorities:
- Water Quantity
- Water Quality
- Plant Health
- Soil Health
- Wildlife
- Emphasis will be placed on projects that achieve any of the following:
- Promote public awareness of NRCS programs and further develop NRCS 3 relationships with conservation partners and participants, women agricultural producers, Veterans, minority and limited resource landowners, beginning farmers, and Historically Underserved agricultural producers, or address program participation barriers such as their property.
- Facilitate and conduct activities to help NRCS and Conservation Partners determine how to improve customer service, work must include methods to obtain direct producer feedback and direct suggestions on ways to better serve conservation clientele.
- Facilitate the organization, advertisement, and delivery of training sessions which will result in participants being trained to become certified technical service providers to prepare soil health management plans.
- Provide specialized/advanced direct technical assistance in support of the following priority resource concerns in Arkansas; water quantity, water quality, wetland restoration, prescribed grazing systems, and wildlife/pollinator habitat. Work may include technical services directly to producers or technical services in support of implementation of conservation programs.
- Provide direct technical assistance to producers in Arkansas by conducting the following: on-site inventory/analysis, formulation of conservation alternative, preparation of conservation plans, assistance with conservation practice survey, design, layout, checkout and/or implementation or support for farm bill program management.
- Provide unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology to facilitate planning and installation of conservation practices. Areas to provide assistance will include real time data for analyzing changes in landscape due to flooding or other natural disasters, improved irrigation water management, assistance with highly erodible land and wetland determinations/compliance, and post construction features. UAV must be capable of providing geo-referenced data and proposals shall include accuracy of the UAV data.
- Conduct water quality monitoring in identified MRBI and NWQI watersheds to provide data on the effects of conservation practices.
- Provide direct technical assistance and/or advanced equipment for personnel in order to facilitate dam inspections and promote operation and maintenance activities on designated watershed dams.
- Development of conservation planning tools, specifics below:
- Soil Health: Conduct analysis and summarize data related to dynamic soil properties such as organic matter, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and other soil health type analysis where data analysis is time sensitive.
- Plant Health: Applications (apps) to assist field staff and producers with any of the following required to practice implementation/certification: fertilizer calculations, pure live seed calculator, or grazing records. A guide to working effectively with small ruminant producers.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $3,000,000
- Award Ceiling: $3,000,000
- Award Floor: $5,000
Eligible Applicants
- Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
- Private institutions of higher education
- Others
- Independent school districts
- Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- City or township governments
- State governments
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
- Special district governments
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- For profit organizations other than small businesses
- County governments
- Small businesses
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=331522