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2008 Farm Bill Agreements

Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI)

The Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) is a voluntary conservation initiative that enables the use of certain conservation programs with resources of eligible partners to provide financial and technical assistance to owners and operators of agricultural and nonindustrial private forest lands.

Eligible producers, who participate in a project area identified in an approved partner agreement, may apply for program assistance.

Eligible programs include: Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).

Under CCPI, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) enters into partnership agreements with eligible entities that want to enhance conservation outcomes on agricultural and nonindustrial private forest lands. The Secretary of Agriculture has delegated the authority for CCPI to the NRCS Chief.

National CCPI

Driftless Area Selected for National CPPI Project

NRCS awarded Trout Unlimited (TU) $1.75 million to continue its restoration work in the Midwest’s Driftless Area, an area that includes parts of northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin. A portion of these funds is available to Iowa producers.

NRCS will take applications from landowners for conservation practices to address sites with good potential for streambank restoration. Applications will be ranked according to the priorities identified in the grant, including severity of streambank erosion, potential for high quality habitat for game and non-game species, public access and ability to monitor the site in future years. 

Only selected practices are eligible for these funds, all geared toward improving and protecting streambanks and trout stream habitat. Additional signups will be announced for future years’ funding. 

The Driftless Area is a 24,000-square miles area of southwest Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota, northeast Iowa and northwest Illinois.  The last glaciers bypassed the Driftless Area, leaving behind more than 4,000 miles of streams and spring creeks that flow through portions of the four states. With its limestone bluffs, fast flowing streams and springs, it is considered a unique national treasure.  However, past farming practices in the 1800s and early 1900s led to massive erosion and water quality degradation throughout the region.

State CCPI

Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF) Selected for State-funded CCPI

The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF) was approved for a state level CCPI project to provide habitat improvements on land permanently protected by a conservation easement or managed by a conservation-mission non-profit organization.  Land is NOT eligible if it is under a Federal easement such as WRP.

NRCS granted INHF $200,000 for this initiative, which is available this year in the following counties: Allamakee, Appanoose, Guthrie, Iowa, Jasper, Kossuth, Monroe, Story and Winneshiek

Assistance will be provided for specific practices included brush management, prescribed burning, access control, conservation cover and riparian forest buffers—among others.

This was approved as a five-year project and may include different counties each year.

Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG)

Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) is a voluntary program intended to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies while leveraging Federal investment in environmental enhancement and protection, in conjunction with agricultural production. Under CIG, Environmental Quality Incentives Program funds are used to award competitive grants to non-Federal governmental or non-governmental organizations, Tribes, or individuals. Awards are given on the national and state level.

CIG enables NRCS to work with other public and private entities to accelerate technology transfer and adoption of promising technologies and approaches to address some of the Nation's most pressing natural resource concerns. CIG will benefit agricultural producers by providing more options for environmental enhancement and compliance with Federal, State, and local regulations. NRCS administers CIG.

National CIG

LOCAL (Landowners and Operators Care About the Land):
A market-driven operator certification and conservation incentive program

Conservation Districts of Iowa will work with several partners to create a market-based incentive for operators to implement conservation-friendly management on land owned by absentee landowners. This incentive will be created through the development, implementation, and evaluation of a conservation certification program for farm operators. The certification mechanism integrates environmental and social responsibility into lease arrangements between operators and landowners.

The project builds on two existing, successful initiatives- absentee landowner research and marketing by Agren, Inc. and the Center for Absentee Landowners, and an internet-based farm leasing network operated by U.S. Farm Lease. Dr. J. Gordon Arbuckle, Iowa State University sociologist also is a key collaborator. Pilot locations for survey research, implementation, and evaluation of the conservation certification program will be portions of the Little Sioux and Lake Red Rock watersheds. Project objectives over the three-year project include the following:

  1. Improve our understanding of landowner and operator willingness and capacity to participate in and support natural resources conservation on Iowa’s farmland.
  2. Develop standards and operational framework for a conservation-farm operator certification program in Iowa.
  3. Enhance the U.S. Farm Lease web-based matching forum with features to bring conservation-minded landowners and farm operators together.
  4. Demonstrate market-based implementation of the certification program and matching forum in two pilot watersheds.
  5. Evaluate the effectiveness of the market-based program to impact land management.
  6. Disseminate project results within and outside the state-of-Iowa.
  7. Initiate a statewide response to reaching out to and educating non-operator landowners of agricultural land.

Federal funding: $519,680
Total Cost of Project: $1,039,360
State CIG

Consumer Energy—Improved On-Farm Energy Efficiency

Consumers Energy will provide 39 farm energy audits for agricultural producers in the state of Iowa to detail the best way the producer can reduce energy use. 

Consumers Energy will work with EnSave to provide Iowa farmers with the farm energy audits. Once 39 appropriate farms have been identified, data collectors will visit the farms and collect information on the farm’s energy usage. Consumers Energy will then take the collected information and use EnSave’s online auditing software to complete the audit. The report will include information on low-cost strategies to reduce energy and fuel use that the producer can implement immediately. It will also contain energy efficient equipment recommendations for the producer to install.

Federal funds: $75,000

Total Cost: $160, 975

Agren Inc—Scale-up the use and availability of on-line conservation planning tools

The purpose of this project is to scale–up the use and availability of a suite of on-line conservation planning tools that allow users in Iowa to evaluate and visually represent conservation practice alternatives with increased ease, speed, and accuracy. These tools facilitate the use of high-resolution digital elevation models derived from Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data.

The potential application of LIDAR digital elevation data, along with accessible and easy to use GIS software, is considerable. These technologies present the possibility to quickly provide farmers with a visual representation of how their fields might look with different conservation practices applied, with a far more accurate layout and cost estimate for conservation practices prior to a field visit. These increased efficiencies will lead to more timely and frequent installation of field-scale practices that protect soil and water quality. 

Federal Funds Requested: $75,000
Total Cost of Project: $150,000

Iowa League of Resource Conservation and Development—Affordable Wetland Mitigation Banks for Iowa

The Iowa League of Resource Conservation and Development proposes to establish one or more non-profit wetland mitigation banks within the next year, with mitigation credits at the lowest possible costs in order to serve agricultural lands. An owner’s manual will be written by the pilot project managers so the program can be easily replicated by other RC&Ds that may have the interest and demand for services to bring added competition to this market-based environmental service.

About 2% of watersheds in the Des Moines lobe tend to be regulated as farmed wetlands, so affordable mitigation is key to enabling improvements in Iowa’s 3,000 Drainage Districts and these small watersheds impacted by public drainage infrastructure. 

The goal is to strategically develop non-profit mitigation banks that will help implement watershed plans at an 80% to 90% cost reduction below for-profit mitigation banks.  The new banks will cooperate with for-profit banks to make appropriate mitigation sites available in all HUC8 watersheds when there is enough demand for such services.

Federal Funds Requested: $75,000
Total Cost of Project: $150,000

Agricultural Water Enhancement Program (AWEP)

The Agricultural Water Enhancement Program (AWEP) is a voluntary conservation initiative that provides financial and technical assistance to agricultural producers to implement agricultural water enhancement activities on agricultural land for the purposes of conserving surface and ground water and improving water quality. As part of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), AWEP operates through contracts with producers to plan and implement conservation practices in project areas established through partnership agreements.

Under AWEP, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) enters into partnership agreements with eligible entities that want to promote ground and surface water conservation or improve water quality on agricultural lands.  The Secretary of Agriculture has delegated the authority for AWEP to the NRCS Chief.

Rathbun Lake Selected for AWEP funding

USDA will provide the Rathbun Land and Water Alliance $159,000 in AWEP funds annually for five years. Funds will be combined with other project monies to provide up to 75 percent financial assistance for producers in three targeted sub-watersheds: Sandy Branch in Appanoose County, Hamilton Creek in Lucas County and Goodwater Creek in Wayne County. Famers can use the financial assistance to implement specific best management practices for reducing sediment and phosphorous runoff into Rathbun Lake, a main water supply source for southern Iowa. These practices include terraces, grassed waterways, grade stabilization structures, water and sediment control basis, rotational grazing and improved grazing practices.

Signup for these special funds is continuous at Service Centers in Lucas, Wayne and Appanoose counties; however the initial cutoff date for this year’s monies is Aug. 7, 2009 Additional application ranking will occur every following Friday until all funds are obligated.

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