Many conservation practices have been scaled down and made more applicable for urban and small farm producers. The Natural Resources Conservation Service offers technical and financial assistance for such projects as high tunnel systems, pollinator plantings, mulching, and cover crops, to name a few.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service got its start after the Dust Bowl, when dust storms ravaged the nation’s farmlands. In the 90 years since, NRCS has broadened its concerns to all of Oregon’s natural resources and stocked its toolbox with energy-efficient and renewable practices to remedy nearly any situation posing a threat to these precious commodities.

Conservation programs through the Natural Resources Conservation Service are voluntary. The organization works with private landowners, forest managers and tribal organizations to implement those conservation practices on working agricultural land.

“If there is what we call a resource concern — soil erosion, plant productivity problems due to excessive grazing, overcrowded forest trees, invasive species — we work with that landowner to address it with a variety of conservation practices,” Will Fett, Natural Resources Conservation Service outreach coordinator, said.

The group has three financial assistance programs.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program — EQIP — is a short-term option with contracts spanning one to three years. This is how landowners can address individual resource concerns.

“Say your livestock operation has a high intensity area like a feed station,” Fett said. “EQIP can create a hard surface, usually cement, for those animals to stand on and minimize the erosion that’s happening there.”

The Conservation Stewardship Program is a mid-range option, typically a five-year agreement, in which a producer receives a minimum payment of $4,000 a year for conservation efforts, or more depending on which conservation practices they implement. This year’s application deadline is March 29.

“This program looks at the whole farm or production operation, maintains a base level of conservation for them and then asks them to step it up a bit and take their conservation practices to the next level,” Fett said. “So, if they’re already doing erosion control, maybe they add a berm or plant some buffer trees.”

The third major category encompasses NRCS’ Agricultural Conservation Easement Programs, long-term contracts in which land goes under an easement paid for by NRCS and a partner agency. Such arrangements may last 30 years or more.

These programs seek to protect working agricultural lands and wetlands.

“What we’re really looking to do is reserve the opportunity to use those lands in an agricultural study but there may be restrictions on other human activity to help with certain aspects of conservation,” Fett said. “While we’re very much concerned with the conservation aspect, we also understand that these are working lands that need to be managed for the benefit of the producer.”

In addition to the financial help, all programs include free technical assistance.

“We have local field offices in nearly every county in Oregon,” Fett said. “Conservation planning is our bread and butter, so having somebody pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, how can I make this better?’ is exactly what we hope for.”

Additional benefits are available to historically underserved producers, including new farmers, military veterans, socially disadvantaged and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) producers. These include priority consideration for funding and having up to 90% of a project cost covered by NRCS.