NRCS South Dakota Announces May 6, 2023, date for Conservation Agreement Proposals

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in South Dakota is seeking proposals for Conservation Collaboration Cooperative Agreements (CCCA) to help address South Dakota’s most pressing natural resource concerns.

The NRCS, an agency under the USDA, is announcing this funding opportunity in South Dakota for the purpose of leveraging NRCS resources, addressing local natural resource issues, encouraging collaboration, and developing state and community level conservation leadership.

As of Fiscal Year 2023, South Dakota NRCS has over 80 active agreements with partners across the state. "South Dakota is fortunate that this year, 2023, we are again able to engage with partners through agreements," says Tony Sunseri, State Conservationist, NRCS, Huron. Funding amounts can range from $50,000 to a maximum of $1.2 million with agreements being between one and four years in duration.

The purpose of this year’s CCCA is to leverage NRCS and partner resources to help NRCS to address the goals of their strategic plan:

1. Improve soil health.
2. Improve landscape performance in dealing with water quantity issues; either excess or inadequate, and downstream impacts.
3. Improve water quality.
4. Improve habitat for local wildlife species of concern.
5. Improve the environmental and economic performance of working agricultural lands.
6. Assist communities and groups to build and strengthen local food projects that provide healthy food and economic opportunities.
7. Support strategies for Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Activities.

Priority will be placed on projects that address soil health/climate smart agriculture, water quality and quantity, habitat, and urban/community agriculture and will be executed through:

1. Building technical capacity of the NRCS to implement Farm Bill Conservation Programs.
2. Building technical capacity of NRCS and partner field conservation employees.
3. Building the capacity of local partners to develop and implement effective projects that align within the mission and scope of NRCS.
4. Leveraging non-federal and non-government resources to achieve positive natural resources conservation outcomes.

“To date, we have engaged with partners on several excellent efforts and developed some new partnerships that are providing increased conservation benefits for South Dakota agriculture and natural resources now and long in the future," says Sunseri.

Proposals must be submitted via www.grants.gov by May 6, 2023. “We encourage applicants to review the funding announcement for details,” explains Sunseri. “Then, entities considering applying should visit the www.grants.gov Web Site early to ensure their account is properly set up and their unique entity identifier Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number and System for Award Management (SAM) information is up-to-date.”