The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released application procedures for the first round of funding through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), according to the Wildlife Management Institute. The RCPP is a new program created in the 2014 Farm Bill that is administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The RCPP combines programs developed under the previous Farm Bill including the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program, Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative, and the Great Lakes Basin Program for Soil Erosion.

"We're giving private companies, local communities, and other non-government partners a way to invest in what are essentially clean water start-up operations," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "By establishing new public-private partnerships, we can have an impact that's well beyond what the Federal government could accomplish on its own. These efforts keep our land resilient and water clean, and promote tremendous economic growth in agriculture, construction, tourism and outdoor recreation, and other industries."

Producer groups, state and local governments, Indian tribes, farmer cooperatives, water districts, municipal water or wastewater treatment facilities, institutions of higher education or any organization with an established history of working cooperatively with producers to address conservation priorities are eligible to compete for project funding. The RCPP program will provide $400 million for grants in the first year of the program with the maximum funding available for any one project capped at $20 million; USDA will make $1.2 billion available throughout the five years of the program. Program funds will be allocated in three categories: 25 percent to a state competitive process; 40 percent through a national competitive process; and 35 percent for specially designated Critical Conservation Areas (CCA).

CCAs are geographical areas given priority because they have significant agricultural production and would benefit from water quality or quantity improvements and the producers in the area need assistance with regulatory compliance. USDA designated the following eight geographical areas as CCAs for this round of funding: Great Lakes Region, Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Mississippi River Basin, Longleaf Pine Range, Columbia River Basin, California Bay Delta, Prairie Grasslands Region and the Colorado River Basin.

Pre-proposals for the program are due July 14, 2014 and application information is available on Grants.gov. NRCS is hosting an online question and answer session on Wednesday June 18 at 11 a.m. ET. The RCPP website has the link to the webinar and instructions on how to participate. (pmr)