Environmental Quality Incentive Program Assistance

The summary for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program Assistance grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the California State Office, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Environmental Quality Incentive Program Assistance: NRCS expects to award up to twelve cooperative agreements estimated to cost between $1500 and $8000 based on proposals submitted and benefits derived for the current fiscal year. Funds available for the current fiscal year are $61,000 and may be distributed as follows: $8,000 for Colusa County; $6,000 for Butte County, $6,000 for Shasta County; $1500 for Plumas and Sierra Counties, $5000 for Lassen County, $2500 for Mendocino County, $5000 for Modoc County, $5000 for Tehama County, $8000 for Trinity County, $6000 for Lake County, and $8000 for Yolo County. Any agreements resulting from this solicitation will have a one-year base period and three one-year options. Activities under this cooperative agreement(s) will be carried out from approximately June 1, 2004 through September 30, 2004. Please note that not all counties need to be addressed in a proposal; therefore, please specifically identify the county/counties you are interested in carrying out the work in when submitting your proposal. The successful applicant will be responsible for : Assisting with approximately 20-500 Fiscal Year 2004 and prior year Farm Bill applications and contracts based on the number of counties awarded to an applicant. Providing quantitative interpretations of EQIP contract data to document cooperators? technical assistance needs utilizing NRCS software programs for the purpose of ranking applications and establishing and administering contracts. Providing field office managers with requested reports to document the status of application and contracts at all phases from application to completion. Generating correspondence to producers, applicants and program participants and providing assistance to accelerate Farm Bill program implementation. Coordinate local work group meetings and stakeholder input for Farm Bill programs. Monitoring and documenting cooperators? progress in implementing practices agreed to in EQIP contracts. Tracking and updating local costs for practices installed for the EQIP cost list. Other products to be delivered may include: maintaining NRCS resource data (GIS topography, county parcels data, aerial photos, land user application and contract folders, etc.) The approximate number of Farm Bill EQIP applications by county for Fiscal Year 2004 is as follows: Plumas?15; Sierra?5; Lassen?32;Mendocino?20; Lake?35; Shasta?40; Modoc?7; Tehama?63; Colusa?25; Butte?40; Yolo?38 and Trinity?15. The approximate number of active contracts (Fiscal Years 2001-2003) that potentially could have conservation practices scheduled for implementation by county in the current fiscal year is as follows: Plumas?15, Sierra?5; Lassen?11; Mendocino?61; Lake?10; Shasta?50; Modoc?4; Tehama?25; Colusa?30; Butte?41; Yolo?35; and Trinity?32. All services provided in Farm Bill EQIP application processing and customer assistance must meet USDA-NRCS standards and specifications as set forth in Departmental manuals, handbooks, and guides. The selected applicant shall report to NRCS the appropriate data elements associated with the services provided to EQIP participants so that the data can be entered into the conservation accomplishments tracking system.