The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is a voluntary
conservation program that encourages producers to address
resource concerns in a comprehensive manner by:
Improving, maintaining, and managing existing conservation
activities.
CSP is available on Tribal and private agricultural lands and
non-industrial private forest land in all 50 States and the
Caribbean and Pacific Islands Areas. The program provides
equitable access to all producers, regardless of operation size,
crops produced, or geographic location. The Secretary of
Agriculture has delegated the authority for CSP to the NRCS
Chief.
Program Description
Through CSP, NRCS will provide financial and technical
assistance to eligible producers to conserve and enhance soil,
water, air, and related natural resources on their land.
Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, prairie land,
improved pastureland, rangeland, nonindustrial private forest
lands, agricultural land under the jurisdiction of an Indian
tribe, and other private agricultural land (including cropped
woodland, marshes, and agricultural land used for the production
of livestock) on which resource concerns related to agricultural
production could be addressed. Participation in the program is
voluntary.
CSP encourages land stewards to improve their conservation
performance by installing and adopting additional activities,
and improving, maintaining, and managing existing activities on
agricultural land and nonindustrial private forest land. The
NRCS will make CSP available nationwide on a continuous
application basis.
The State Conservationist, in consultation with the State
Technical Committee and local work groups, will focus program
impacts on natural resources that are of specific concern for a
State, or the specific geographic areas within a State.
Applications will be evaluated relative to other applications
addressing similar priority resource concerns to facilitate a
competitive ranking process among applicants within a State who
face similar resource challenges.
The entire operation must be enrolled and must include all
eligible land that will be under the applicant's control for the
term of the proposed contract that is operated substantially
separate from other operations.
CSP offers participants two possible types of payments:
- Annual payment for installing and adopting additional
activities, and improving, maintaining, and managing
existing activities
- Supplemental payment for the adoption of
resource-conserving crop rotations
The State Conservationist, in consultation with the State
Technical Committee and local work groups, will focus program
impacts on natural resources that are of specific concern for a
State, or the specific geographic areas within a State.
Applications will be evaluated relative to other applications
addressing similar priority resource concerns to facilitate a
competitive ranking process among applicants within a State who
face similar resource challenges.
The documents below require
Acrobat Reader,
Microsoft Excel , or
Microsoft Word.
Organic Production
CSP is also available to assist producers with a transition
to organic production.
The following two documents describe this opportunity in detail.
Organic Crosswalk (PDF; 567 KB)
Contribution to Organic Transitioning (PDF; 45KB)
Washington Priorities
Priority Resource Concerns (PDF; 15KB)
Geographic Area Boundaries (PDF; 594KB)
2010 - Round 2 CSP Self-Screening Checklist And Activity
Sheet
Conservation Stewardship Self-Screening Checklist (PDF,
98KB)
Conservation Stewardship Program Activity List (PDF,
39KB)
"Enhancement" means a type of conservation activity used to
treat natural resources and improve conservation performance.
Enhancements are installed at a level of management intensity
that exceeds the sustainable level for a given resource concern,
and those directly related to a practice standard are applied in
a manner that exceeds the minimum treatment requirements of the
standard.
Enhancement activity job sheets are available for the
following resource concerns: Air Quality, Animal, Energy,
Plants, Soil Erosion, Soil Quality, Water Quality, Water
Quantity and Special Projects.
State Specific Enhancement Requirements
CSP Duplicate Practice List (XLS; 56KB)
AIR03 - Replace burning of prunnings, removals and other
crop residues with non-burning alternatives (DOCX; 15KB)
AIR04 - Use drift reducing nozzles, low spray pressure and
boom height and adjutants to reduce pesticide drift (DOCX;
16KB)
ANM01 - Drainage water management for seasonal wildlife
habitat (DOCX; 16KB)
ANM02 - Defer crop production on temporary and seasonal
wetlands (DOCX; 15KB)
ANM03 - Incorporate native grasses and or legumes into 15%
or more of the forage base (DOC;37KB)
ANM04 - Extend existing filter strips for water quality
protection and wildlife habitat (DOC; 30KB)
ANM05 - Extend existing riparian forest buffer s for water
quality and protection and wildlife habitat (DOC; 30KB)
ANM06 - Extend existing riparian herbaceous buffers for
water quality protection and wildlife habitat (DOC; 30KB)
ANM07 - Extend existing field borders for water quality
protection and wildlife habitat (DOC; 30KB)
ANM08 - Improve the plant diversity and structure of
non-cropped areas for wildlife food and habitat (DOC; 30KB)
ANM09 - Grazing management to improve wildlife habitat
(DOC; 29KB)
ANM11 - Patch-burning to enhance wildlife habitat (DOC;
29KB)
ANM13 - Non-forested Riparian zone enhancement for Fish and
Wildlife (DOC; 29KB)
ANM14 - Riparian Forest Buffer, Terrestrial and Aquatic
Wildlife Habitat (DOC; 30KB)
ANM15 - Forest Stand Improvement for Habitat and Soil
Quality (DOC; 32KB)
ANM19 - Wildlife Corridors (DOC; 29KB)
ANM22 - Restoration and management of rare or declining
habitat (DOCX; 17KB)
ANM23 - Multi-species native perennials for biomass/wildlife
habitat (DOCX; 15KB)
ANM24 - Upland forest wildlife structures (DOCX; 15KB)
ANM25 - Stockpiling for forages to extend the grazing
season (PDF; 530KB)
PLT01 - Establish Pollinator Habitat (DOC; 30KB)
PLT02 - Grazing management to improve wildlife habitat (DOCX;
256KB)
PLT03 - Forest Stand Improvement - Pre-treating vegetation
and fuels (DOCX; 18KB)
PLT05 - Multi-story cropping, sustainable management of
non-timber forest plants (DOCX; 21KB)
PLT06 - Renovation of Windbreak for Wildlife (DOCX; 16KB)
PLT07 - Hardwood Crop tree release (DOCX; 20KB)
PLT08 - Habitat developed for beneficial insects (DOC;
35KB)
PLT11 - Conifer Crop tree release (DOCX; 21KB)
PLT12 - Patch harvesting to improve degraded hardwood
stands (DOCX; 16KB)
RCCR - Resource conserving crops and rotations (DOCX;
18KB)
SOE01 - Continuous no-till with high residue (DOC; 30KB)
SOE03 - Continuous no-till organic system (DOC; 31KB)
SQL02 - Continuous cover crops (DOC; 31KB)
SQL03 - Drainage water management for nutrient, pathogen, or
pesticide reduction (DOCX; 16KB)
SQL04 - Use of cover crop mixes (DOC; 31KB)
SQL05 - Use of deep rooted crops to reduce compaction
(DOC; 30KB)
WQL01 - Biological suppression and other non-chemical
techniques to manage brush (DOC; 28KB)
WQL04 - Plant tissue testing and analysis to improve
nitrogen management (DOC; 40KB)
WQL06 - Apply controlled release nitrogen fertilizer
(DOC; 35KB)
WQL08 - Use pre-side dress N test with split application of
N (DOC; 33KB)
WQL10 - Plant cover crop that will scavenge residual N
(DOC; 34KB)
WQL13 - High level integrated pest management to reduce
pesticide environmental risk (DOC; 33KB)
WQL20 - Transition to Organic Cropping Systems (DOC;
32KB)
Highlights and Announcements
More information can be found on the
National NRCS CSP site. Contains new CSP Fact Sheet, CSP
Interim Final Rule and
Payment Range Estimates.
Program Contact
For questions regarding the Washington State Conservation
Stewardship Program contact
your local NRCS office or:
Dave Brown
Asst. State Conservationist for Programs
USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service
316 W. Boone Ave Suite 450
Spokane, WA 99201
509.323.2971
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