Farmer-Fed Conservation in Idaho

 The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a new conservation initiative designed to enhance cooperative conservation on agriculture and non-industrial private forest land. The Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) supports collaborative efforts to conserve and enhance natural resources. “This new initiative allows eligible entities to develop conservation projects that address specific environmental concerns within a region” said Jeff Burwell, Idaho State Conservationist.  “CCPI lets a cooperative group define the region for a project, as well as the criteria to evaluate producers for project funding.  It delivers flexible assistance to landowners because they pick the issue to address in a specific location and can leverage their money with funds from NRCS.” Bob Bartholomew, Assistant State Conservationist for Programs for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.  “In simple terms it gives groups an opportunity to request a geographically specific, and those are big words but, you can define your own area and then design your own miniature environmental quality incentives program project or your own wildlife habitat incentives program project. Both those programs are cost-share programs that our agency offers to farmers to do conservation on their land.”