Endowment wins $2 Million USDA Grant; To Host Webinar to Explore Initiative
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on July 13th announced $18.4 million in Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) to fund 55 projects to develop and refine cutting-edge technologies and approaches to help farmers and ranchers conserve and sustain natural resources. The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) received the largest single grant in the slate and the first-ever grant in the new “leverage” category. Vilsack made the announcement in a speech at the Soil and Water Conservation Society annual meeting in Dearborn, Michigan. “New technology can play an important role in addressing environmental problems, and the Obama Administration is committed to developing innovative solutions to natural resource management and conservation issues facing farmers and ranchers,” Vilsack said.
The Endowment’s initiative will involve an additional $2 million Endowment investment – to be further matched on the ground for a total impact greater than $6 million – for the purpose of advancing watershed health through healthy forests. “We will link urban water consumers with rural forestland owners to better establish the tie between upstream ecological services and downstream users,” said Endowment President Carlton Owen. “This project comes at a crucial time, when urban and rural communities, municipalities and utilities must work together to meet growing water needs during extended periods of drought likely to be exacerbated by climate change,” Owen continued.
The Endowment will host a Webinar on August 5, 2009 at 2:00 pm EDST to provide an overview of the planned program and to answer questions that potential partners might have about the initiative. Discussions will include details on criteria that the Endowment will consider in selecting candidate watersheds and partners as well as project timelines and proposal submission dates. In preparation for that event, interested parties may wish to view the Endowment’s submission to USDA. Parties interested in participating in the Webinar should contact Michelle@usendowment.org for details.
The CIG program is designed to speed the transfer and enhance use of technologies and methods that show promise in solving the nation’s top natural resource problems by targeting innovative, on-the-ground conservation. Approved projects address issues such as water quantity and quality, grazing lands, soil and forest health, and air quality. “The Conservation Innovation Grant program enables USDA to review, field test, and demonstrate practices and ideas that have yet to be successfully mainstreamed into our portfolio of practice options,” said Dave White, Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which administers the program and provides technical oversight for each project.
