Heather Wetzstein, 802-951-6796

USDA NRCS ANNOUNCES $493,000 IN VERMONT CONSERVATION INNOVATION GRANTS

Grants Will Help Producers Conserve and Sustain Natural Resources

Vermont USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service State Conservationist, Judy Doerner, today announced $317,600 in Conservation Innovation Grants to Vermonters to fund 7 projects to develop and refine cutting-edge technologies and approaches to help farmers and forest land owners conserve and sustain natural resources. These are in addition to the 2 Vermont projects Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced last week in the amount of $175,405.

"New technology can play an important role in addressing environmental problems, and the Obama Administration is committed to developing innovative solutions to natural resource management and conservation issues facing farmers," Vilsack said in his press release. "These Conservation Innovation Grants will benefit both agriculture and the environment by getting 21st century ideas in the hands of our producers across the country."

The Conservation Innovation Grant program is designed to speed the transfer and enhance use of technologies and methods that show promise in solving the nation's top natural resource problems by targeting innovative, on-the-ground conservation. Approved projects address issues such as water quality, grazing lands, soil and forest health, carbon sequestration, and energy use.

"The Conservation Innovation Grant program enables USDA to review, field test, and demonstrate practices and ideas that have yet to be successfully mainstreamed into our portfolio of practice options," said Judy Doerner, Vermont State Conservationist of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which administers the program and provides technical oversight for each project.

The purpose of the 9 projects are:

• White River Partnership Watershed Landscape Auction – test a market-based incentive system used successfully in the Netherlands to raise private capital to protect water quality, fish and wildlife habitat on private agricultural and forestry land in Vermont.
• Conservation Collaboratives – determine ways to optimize greenhouse gas carbon storage in degraded forest lands in the Northeast Kingdom and create Vermont’s first market-ready forest-based carbon offsets project.
• University of Vermont Center for Sustainable Agriculture – assist Vermont’s livestock farmers to alleviate soil compaction and increase carbon sequestration while increasing pasture production.
• Avatar Energy Vermont – test the ability of a new manure treatment system for small dairies to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases such as ammonia and nitrous oxide.
• Jon Satz, owner of Wood’s Market Garden – increase energy use and decrease net energy consumption through the use of a pellet-fired boiler to heat two greenhouses used in the production of organic vegetables and fruit.
• University of Vermont Extension – demonstrate the feasibility of cover crops and manure injection systems on corn silage in the Lake Champlain Basin in order to reduce polluted run of
• University of Vermont Extension – encourage the adoption of zone tillage by commercial vegetable farmers in order to improve soil health and crop yields and reduce fuel usage.
• The Nature Conservancy Vermont – increase the number of landowners who take actions to improve bat habitat, habitat for aquatic and riparian species, and reduce invasive terrestrial plant infestations that affect forest productivity and the quality of wildlife habitats.
• University of Vermont and State Agricultural College – demonstrate the effectiveness of innovative steel slag filtration technology in reducing pathogens and other pollutants from silage leachate.

Grantees provide matching funds, bringing the total value of the approved projects to more than $800,000. The program targets grants to state and local governments, Indian tribes, non-governmental organizations and individuals.

For more information about USDA's conservation programs, visit www.nrcs.usda.gov or the nearest USDA Service Center in your area.

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