Regional Conservation Partnership Program

Regional Conservation Partnership Program

Regional Conservation Partnership Program. I'm Greg Martin with Colorado Ag Today.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Denver on Monday to announce a $235 million dollar investment to improve the nation's water quality, combat drought, enhance soil health, support wildlife habitat and protect agricultural viability. Vilsack made the announcement at a signing ceremony for the Colorado Pressurized Small Hydropower Partnership Project, a 2015-funded project that focuses on water quantity resource concerns in Colorado. It was approved during the first Regional Conservation Partnership Program funding announcements back in January.

VILSACK: We learned a lot from that first go-around.We learned that we need to probably limit the grant amount to no more than $10 million dollars and that would be both combined financial and technical assistance value. We know that we need to ask our partners as they are applying for these resources to identify specifically what they believe the technical assistance requirements would be from NRCS so that can be factored accurately into the grant proposal.

The funding is being made available through the RCPP which is the newest conservation tool of the NRCS. Vilsack says many of the conservation efforts will be focusing on water resources.

VILSACK: We need to figure ways to use water more creatively and more efficiently and we need to obviously figure out ways in which the soil can retain water resources more effectively and that plants use water more efficiently. This particular effort allows us to leverage the dollar that the federal government has to incent people to come together and put their resources in a pot

And that's Colorado Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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