Conservation Technical Assistance: GLCI Cooperative Agreements (US)

Deadline: 22-Sep-22

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is offering grants for the Conservation Technical Assistance: Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI) Cooperative Agreements.

The goal of this funding opportunity is for NRCS, in collaboration with a diverse set of partners, including historically underserved farmers and ranchers and their organizations, to expand the delivery of conservation technical assistance to support grazing planning and conservation practice implementation and monitoring, conferences and other education, demonstrations, producer networks, workforce training, research and outreach projects to improve agricultural resilience.

Funding for the Conservation Technical Assistance: Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI) Cooperative Agreements is supported by GLCI. GLCI also provides support to NRCS for grazing technical assistance to producers, as well as the National Grazing Lands Coalition to help state grazing coalitions form and persist with participation from historically underserved producers, to host a Triennial National Grazing Lands Conference, and to act as navigators for grazers seeking additional resources.

Program Purpose

The purpose of Conservation Technical Assistance: Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI) Cooperative Agreements is to enhance NRCS and partner resources to:

• Increase acreage across the nation in managed grazing that addresses natural resource concerns.
• Increase availability of technical assistance for farmers and ranchers engaged in grazing activities.
• Increase technical assistance for historically underserved farmers and ranchers engaged in grazing activities.
• Expand and establish new peer-to-peer networks and direct financial support for mentors working with new, beginning, or transitioning farmers and ranchers engaged in grazing activities.
• Ensure a broad set of the grazing community including minority producers, and associated institutions such as 1890, 1994, and Hispanic serving Land Grant Institutions, are serviced by GLCI.
• Ensure strong participation by minority producers in new and existing grazing coalitions.

Priorities

NRCS will place priority upon projects—

• Promoting grazing management systems
• Having a long-term project plan for funding beyond the life of this award
• Led by organizations serving primarily historically underserved producers or which have demonstrated ability to serve historically underserved producers
• With multi-stakeholder partnerships of three or more organizations
• With significant farmer and rancher involvement
• With strategies to quantify, monitor, report on and verify conservation benefits

Funding Information

• The total amount of Federal funding the agency expects to award through this opportunity is $12 million.
• The funding ceiling is $150,000 for a one-year agreement and $300,000 for a two year agreement.

Eligible Activities

• Eligible Activities for the GLCI Cooperative Agreements include:
  • Technical assistance
    • Write and implement grazing plans
    • Develop rangeland health reference worksheets and/or grazing management interpretations on both rangeland and pastureland to update current Ecological Site Descriptions.
    • To spur innovation and grazing technologies
  • Education (Conferences, workshops, webinars, and other educational events).
  • Grazing networks (field days, pasture walks, peer-to-peer knowledge exchange, mentorship)
  • NRCS Workforce Development, including mentorship, training, and apprenticeship arrangements.
    • Examples of trainings for NRCS employees include Working Effectively with Livestock Producers, Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health, Pasture Condition Scoring, Conservation Planning on Grazing Lands, and other grazing land tools and technologies used to assess grazing lands.
  • Youth outreach related to grazing land management
  • A limited amount of funds in each region may be used to conduct on-farm research as a supplemental goal for any projects conducting the above activities
• Projects should identify and remove barriers to accessing grazing information and programs and reach historically underserved groups through a combination of outreach and technical assistance in managing grasslands that address the following NRCS priority areas:
  • Addressing local natural resource concerns
  • Utilizing Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices and principles.
  • Encouraging existing and new partnerships to advance the resource needs of underserved communities.
  • Identifying and implementing strategies to quantify, monitor, report on and verify conservation benefits associated with grazing management systems

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants and applications must meet eligibility criteria by the application deadline to be considered for award. Eligible applicant type is determined by the implementing program statute. Applicant entities identified in the SAM.gov exclusions database as ineligible, prohibited/restricted, or excluded from receiving Federal contracts and certain Federal assistance and benefits will not be considered for Federal funding, as applicable to the funding being requested under this Federal program. International and foreign organizations are not eligible for this funding opportunity.
• Eligibility for this opportunity is limited to the following entity types based in any of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Caribbean Area (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), and the Pacific Islands Area (Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands):
  • Nonprofit organizations having a 501(c) (3) status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (other than institutions of higher education)
  • Farmer or rancher organizations
  • State and local conservation governmental agencies
  • Agricultural Extension Services
  • Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
  • Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
  • Land grant universities including 1890 or 1994 land grant institution
• Any award made pursuant to this RFA will be made to a single individual or entity. Applicants that apply as “partnerships” or other similar groupings must clearly describe the relationship between the applicant and the “partner” parties. In all but exceptional cases, it must be reflected in the award as an awardee/sub awardee relationship.
• An applicant may not submit more than one application. If more than one application is submitted, only the last application will be considered.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.

For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=342983