Deadline: 21-Jun-21
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), is announcing the availability of Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) funding to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies. Applications are accepted from eligible entities for projects carried out in the state of Maine.
The purpose of CIG is to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies in conjunction with agricultural production. CIG projects are expected to lead to the transfer of conservation technologies, management systems, and innovative approaches (such as market-based systems) to agricultural producers, into government technical manuals and guides, or to the private sector. CIG generally funds pilot projects, field demonstrations, and on-farm conservation research.
CIG funds the development and field testing, on-farm research and demonstration, evaluation, or implementation of:
- Approaches to incentivizing conservation adoption, including market-based and conservation finance approaches; and
- Conservation technologies, practices, and systems.
CIG Priorities
- Forestry: NRCS promotes forest conservation in a number of ways, but primarily through forest management plans and practices for productivity and wildlife. Monitoring, evaluation, and analysis is often difficult to establish even after significant investment in practices. Projects should address one or more of the following:
- Demonstrate and evaluate techniques, approaches or incentives that encourage adoption of sound-science forest management practices or explore existing barriers to adoption.
- Examine costs and benefits associated with existing or potential forest management practices ranging from intensive to extensive forest management or riparian buffer management practices.
- Evaluation of the utility of forested areas for use as vegetated treatment areas.
- Aquatic Organism Conservation: NRCS works with diverse groups to remove barriers to fish and other aquatic organisms and supports efforts to improve the health of stream ecosystems and the wildlife that depend on them. Maine NRCS seeks innovative approaches to plan and assess stream barriers, assess and improve in-stream habitat, and protect species of concern from injury or mortality. 2021 CIG proposals should address one or more of the following aquatic organism conservation priorities:
- Demonstration of innovative approaches to improve aquatic habitat, especially for diadromous species that will inform or improve conservation practices.
- Demonstration of innovative approaches to protect wildlife species of concern from mortality or predation that inform/improve conservation practices.
- Soil Health: Inform, improve, or increase adoption of NRCS conservation practices that focus on maintaining or enhancing soil health by addressing all four soil health planning principles: minimize disturbance, maximize soil cover, maximize biodiversity and maximize presence of living roots. NRCS invites proposals that support soil health practices in the following areas:
- Economic/financial case studies and/or “calculator tool” development on the costs and benefits of soil health system components such as crop rotation, tillage intensity and frequency, and cover crop variables for potato and/or dairy cropping systems.
- Soil climate and/or runoff effect evaluations of soil health components such as overwintered cover crops versus fall plowing as they relate to viability of practice adoption by farmers.
- Innovative cover cropping systems appropriate to the climate of northern and central Maine.
- Innovative cropping systems including reduced or no-till applications in potato rotations and alternative crop types.
- Pollinator Conservation: NRCS seeks to conserve pollinators primarily by assisting landowners with increasing floral resources, and by removing or mitigating threats to pollinators. NRCS has many suitable conservation practices for those objectives, but innovative solutions to establish and enhance floral resources, protect pollinators, and assess outcomes are areas that need attention. NRCS invites proposals that support pollinator conservation in the following areas:
- Innovative techniques to apply NRCS practices Herbaceous Weed Control or Brush Management to improve pollinator habitat on challenging sites such as wetland and adjacent areas dominated by dense stands of invasive weeds.
- Innovative techniques to apply NRCS practice Integrated Pest Management and related practices.
- Irrigation and Natural Soil Moisture Management: NRCS seeks to promote practices that mitigate drought, reduce runoff, and conserve moisture during the growing season as they relate to resource concerns and risk management, and invites proposals that support this.
Funding Information
- Estimated Funding: The total amount of Federal funding the agency expects to award through this opportunity is $250,000.
- Start Dates and Performance Periods: Projects may be between 1 and 3 years in duration. Applicants should plan their projects based on an estimated project start date of August 31, 2021.
- Number of Awards: The agency expects to make up to 4 award(s).
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.
- All U.S.-based non-Federal entities (NFE) and individuals, with the exception of Federal agencies, are eligible to apply for projects carried out in Maine. The following entity types are eligible: All non-federal entities (NFE) and individuals are invited to apply, with the sole exception of federal agencies.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=333024