The USDA has announced $1.5 billion to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners adopt and expand voluntary, locally led conservation strategies and projects.

About $167 million will go to 10 Pacific Northwest projects, with Oregon organizations awarded $96 million, according to data released Oct. 23.

In Oregon, the High Desert Partnership was awarded $18.5 million to expand existing conservation efforts, implementing climate smart and other adaptive practices on a landscape scale.

“I’m hopeful when it’s all said and done it will be in the hundreds of thousands of acres,” said Brenda Smith, director of the Harney County-based nonprofit.

Funds will improve a diverse mix of acreage, including replacing irrigation infrastructure in meadows and clearing juniper to boost fire resilience on rangeland.

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“Ecosystems depend on one another, and what happens in one impacts another,” Smith said.

Here’s a look at other grants.

Oregon

•The Deschutes River Conservancy was awarded $25 million for a project to use piping, on-farm efficiencies and water marketing to save water in the Central Oregon Irrigation District and redirect it to the North Unit Irrigation District.

That will be exchanged with stored water in the Wickiup Reservoir to manage and increase flows in the Upper Deschutes, benefiting endangered species.

•The Lomakatsi Restoration Project will receive $21.3 million to reduce hazardous fuels and improve forest health on 8,500 to 10,000 acres of the Rogue Basin.

•The Wheeler Soil and Water Conservation District won a $21.3 million grant to conserve, restore and enhance more than 23,000 acres of range and forest in the Middle John Day Basin.

•The Oregon Department of Forestry will receive $9.9 million to reduce fuel load hazards and improve forest health on 4,600 acres in underserved communities within Southern Oregon.

“This funding will allow us to work toward our goals in the 20-year strategy and give more opportunities to our firefighters in the offseason,” said Tyler Ramos, ODF assistant Southern Oregon area director.

Idaho

•The National Forest Foundation will receive $20.7 million to help Southwest Idaho non-industrial private forest operators reduce hazardous fuels across 10,000 acres or more.

•AgSpire, a regenerative agriculture company, was awarded $19.8 million and will work to reduce methane emissions by 30% from 175,500 dairy cows in Idaho, as well as Oregon through a feed-based additive.

•The Nature Conservancy Idaho won a $19.4 million award to permanently protect 20,000 acres of private farm, ranch and forest and 40 stream miles within them. Project areas haven’t been identified.

“We are going to be working with land trust partners and the NRCS to identify which acres to protect,” said Tess O’Sullivan, land and water protection program manager for the Nature Conservancy of Idaho.

•The Nez Perce Tribe was awarded $6.4 million for Lower South Fork Clearwater River habitat restoration. Two miles of the mainstem river corridor will be repaired, with a focus on stopping concentrated erosion, increasing habitat, reconnecting the river to its floodplain and improving riparian area functions.

•Idaho also was a partner state in a $12.7 million project led by the Nature Conservancy in Ohio that aims to reduce methane emissions by improving feed management on dairy farms.

Washington

•The Whatcom Conservation District was awarded $4.8 million to replace barrier culverts with fish passable structures and improve habitat by adding large wood to create cover and resting pools. The project aims to increase populations of endangered chinook salmon and steelhead.