- (Public Value) UCANR: Protecting California's natural resources
- Author: John M Harper
Reminder: the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in California is offering $22,774,000 through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). California is one of only four states in the nation to pilot this important program to help agricultural producers, including Tribes, alleviate the immediate impacts of drought and other natural resource challenges on working lands. NRCS will make available this funding through Conservation Incentive Contracts (CIC), a new option available through EQIP.
Created in the 2018 farm bill, EQIP CIC funds are five-year contracts. In California, the program will focus on practices such as “forest management plans, tree/shrub establishment, brush management, prescribed grazing, pasture and hay planting, wildlife habitat, livestock watering systems, and cover crops,” NRCS noted. According to the agency, the program will have six priority areas: cropland in the San Joaquin Valley; cropland statewide; cropland in the Klamath Basin; statewide range and pasture; statewide forest; and statewide tribal cropland, range, pasture and forest.
Signup for this targeted funding runs through July 12, 2021.You can download an application here. For more information or questions, please contact the Mendocino USDA NRCS Service Center below:
UKIAH SERVICE CENTER
1252 AIRPORT PARK BLVD STE B1
UKIAH, CA 95482
(707) 468-9223
- Author: John M Harper
For those of you that have been impacted by past or current wildfires in relation to loss of rangeland forage, the YouTube video link and related website below would be good resources to review to help calculate forage loss. If you know of anyone with grazing lands impacted by the 2020 fires, please distribute. Also any of you that have current loss of structures, fences, stock and forages, it is always helpful to hear from you so we can summarize (without identifying individuals) to share with policy-makers. This information is often used to request federal disaster funds. Thanks in advance and stay safe!
https://ucanr.edu/sites/forageloss/
- Author: John M Harper
Ukiah, CA, September 16, 2020 — Recent wildfires have impacted farmers and ranchers in Mendocino and Lake Counties. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), through the Farm Service Agency (FSA), has disaster assistance programs available to help agricultural producers recover after natural disasters, including wildfires.
“FSA offers a variety of disaster assistance programs to support farmers and ranchers through times of adversity,” said Katie Delbar, County Executive Director for FSA in Mendocino and Lake County. “Many disaster programs have a 30-day window to report losses, so once producers are able to evaluate their losses, it is important to contact the local FSA office to report all damages and losses and learn more about how we can assist.”
FSA offers many programs to help producers recover from losses, including the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP), the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP), Emergency Forest Restoration Program and the Tree Assistance Program. Producers located in counties receiving a primary or contiguous disaster designation are eligible for low-interest emergency loans to help them recover from production and physical losses.
To participate in LIP, producers must submit a notice of loss to their local FSA office within 30 calendar days of when the loss of livestock is apparent. In addition, livestock producers should bring supporting evidence, including documentation of the number and kind of livestock that died, photographs or video records to document the loss, purchase records, veterinarian records, production records, and other similar documents. Owners who sold injured livestock for a reduced price because the livestock was injured due to an adverse weather event, must provide verifiable evidence of the reduced sale of the livestock.
To participate in ELAP, producers must submit a notice of loss to their local FSA office within 30 calendar days of when the loss is apparent. Producers should also maintain records and receipts documenting that livestock were removed from the grazing pasture due to adverse weather, costs of transporting livestock feed to eligible livestock, receipts for equipment rental fees for hay lifts, and feed purchase receipts.
The FSA Emergency Conservation Program provides funding and technical assistance for farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate farmland damaged by natural disasters.
Compensation also is available to producers who purchased coverage through FSA's Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, which protects non-insurable crops against natural disasters that result in lower yields, crop losses or prevented planting. Eligible producers must have purchased NAP coverage for 2020 crops and file a notice of loss and application for payment on qualifying crops.
Please contact the local FSA office at 707-468-9223 (ext. 2) for more information about our disaster assistance programs or visit farmers.gov/recover.
- Author: John M Harper
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Join us for Working Rangelands Wednesdays, where we explore topics around rangeland agriculture in California and across the West. The goal of this webinar series is to discuss challenges related to managing multiple-use rangelands through an applied, land manager-oriented lens. Our next webinar is Wednesday, July 15th at 1pm PDT and will feature a rancher-panel discussing how they cope with drought on federal and non-federal public lands in California.
Questions? Please contact Dan Macon at dmacon@ucanr.edu. See you on Wednesday! |
- Author: John M Harper
Please join us for our next webinar on June 3 𝐚𝐭 𝟏:𝟎𝟎𝐩𝐦 𝐏𝐃𝐓, which will feature Dr. Ken Tate, Professor and Rustici Specialist in Rangeland Watershed Sciences, discussing current issues surrounding grazing and water quality on California's rangelands and pastures.
Register at https://tinyurl.com/WRWs3
(we will email registrants a Zoom meeting link morning of the webinar)
Working Rangelands Wednesdays is a bi-weekly webinar series where we explore topics around rangeland agriculture in California and across the West.
You can view previous Working Rangelands Wednesdays sessions on the UC Rangelands YouTube channel. For questions, please contact Dr. Leslie Roche at lmroche@ucdavis.edu.
