USDA Expands Conservation Practices Qualifying for Climate-Smart Funding
Learn about the USDA-NRCS’s recent expansion of the list of practices and activities eligible for Climate-Smart funding through the Inflation Reduction Act.
WLFW Research Details How Wildfire Follows Cheatgrass In the Great Basin
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New Science Backs WLFW’s Biome-Wide Conservation Approach
November 6, 2023
NRCS adds key grass and shrubland practices to list of climate-smart agriculture and forestry activities eligible for FY 2024 IRA funding
Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW) supports voluntary, incentive-based conservation practices that address landscape-scale threats, specifically in the sagebrush and Great Plains grasslands biomes. Key to this work are USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) technical assistance and cost-share funding programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). NRCS recently announced an expansion to the list of practices eligible for climate-smart agriculture and forestry activities, adding additional funding for these practices in fiscal year 2024 through the Inflation Reduction Act.
These in-demand activities are expected to deliver reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or increases in carbon sequestration as well as significant other benefits to natural resources like soil health, water quality, pollinator and wildlife habitat and air quality. In response to feedback received from conservation partners, producers and NRCS staff across the country, NRCS considered and evaluated activities based on scientific literature demonstrating expected climate change mitigation benefits.
~USDA press release announcing expanded practices and activities
A number of the added practices reflect the conservation priorities of ranchers and landowners in the American West, supported by WLFW’s frameworks for conservation action that outline threat-based strategies based on years of experience in the field. These practices are backed by WLFW’s cutting-edge science, which is co-produced with universities, landowners, the USDA-NRCS Conservation Effects Assessment Project, and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.
Watch the USDA-NRCS “Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Mitigation Activities & other FY24 Conservation Opportunities” webinar from October 25, 2023
Important note about the application window for this funding: NRCS accepts producer applications for its conservation programs year-round, but producers interested in this cycle of Inflation Reduction Act funding should apply as soon as possible. Producers interested in EQIP or CSP should apply by their state’s ranking dates for consideration this year. Funding is provided through a competitive process and will include an opportunity to address the unmet demand from producers who have previously sought funding for climate-smart conservation activities. If you apply after the program ranking date, NRCS will automatically consider your application during future funding cycles. Visit or contact your local NRCS Service Center to learn how to apply for this funding.
Newly eligible practices help address key threats identified in WLFW’s frameworks for conservation action, including combating invasive annual grasses, woody species encroachment, land-use conversion, and riparian and wet meadow degradation.
Conservation practitioners and planners should explore the expanded list of practices and activities eligible for funding through NRCS. This infusion of resources will allow landowners and partners to further scale up climate-smart mitigation and adaptation actions on imperiled grass and shrublands.
Learn more about the individual threats, eligible practices, current conservation work, and scientific resources below.
Invasive Annual Grasses
Invasive annual grasses pose significant threats to sagebrush habitat, sagebrush-dependent wildlife, and producers who rely on healthy, resilient sagebrush habitat. Invasive annual grasses displace native perennials, increase the risk of severe rangeland fires, and displace wildlife. WLFW works with partners across sagebrush country to address this threat through proactive, spatially targeted conservation solutions.
Added NRCS practices eligible for climate-smart funding:
- Mitigation Practice: Grazing and Pasture
- Code 315, Herbaceous Weed Treatment (acres). Used to release desired deep-rooted perennial species.
- CSP Enhancement Activity: Herbaceous weed treatment to create desired plant communities consistent with the ecological site.
Existing WLFW-supported efforts:
- Idaho’s Cheatgrass Challenge – In 2020, NRCS-Idaho and partners launched this statewide initiative to address the threat that invasive annual grasses, like cheatgrass, pose to the state. The effort uses a Defend the Core strategy and spatial targeting to prioritize intact cores of sagebrush habitat where managers work to prevent cheatgrass from colonizing.
- Oregon’s Sage Grouse Conservation Partnership (SageCon) Invasives Initiative – In 2021, partners in Oregon, led by the SageCon Partnership, outlined a Defend the Core strategy for tackling invasive annual grasses in eastern Oregon’s vast sagebrush rangelands. The effort is using spatial targeting and a cross-boundary approach to address the threat.
- Oregon Explorer webpage detailing SageCon’s Invasive Initiative strategy and approach
- Partners in the Sage post about the Initiative
- WLFW Publication Alert highlighting a 2022 paper in the journal Rangelands that details how SageCon is using the Defend the Core strategy and geographically explicit targeting to tackle invasive annual grasses
Review WLFW science publications related to Invasive Annual Grasses
Woody Species Encroachment – Great Plains Biome
Woody species encroachment is one of the primary drivers of grassland loss in the Great Plains.
Proactive, spatially targeted approaches to conserving intact grasslands are the most efficient and effective strategies for preventing the Great Plains grassland biome from transitioning to a woody-species dominated system. WLFW is at the forefront of developing and implementing these strategies across the Plains.
Added NRCS practices eligible for climate-smart funding:
- Mitigation Practice: Grazing and Pasture
- Code 314: Brush Management (acres). Used to remove woody invasive vegetation and the removed material will be mechanically treated and left onsite.
- CSP Enhancement Activity: Brush management to improve wildlife habitat.
- Mitigation Practice: Grazing and Pasture
- Code 338: Prescribed Burning (acres).
- CSP Enhancement Activity: Strategically planned, patch burning for grazing distribution and wildlife habitat.
Existing WLFW-supported efforts:
- Great Plains Grasslands Initiatives (GPGI) – These NRCS state-led efforts use the latest woody species encroachment science and guidance to target woody species encroachment in four states in the Great Plains (KS, NE, OK, SD). All four state-led GPGI efforts use a Defend the Core approach to prioritize and target investments that protect intact grasslands from woody encroachment.
- Reducing Woody Encroachment in Grasslands: A Guide to Reducing Risk and Vulnerability – In partnership with the University of Oklahoma Extension and the University of Nebraska, WLFW supported the production of this resource which uses the latest science and a risk-based, vulnerability reduction approach to defending core grasslands from woody species encroachment.
- Reducing Woody Encroachment in Grasslands: A Pocket Guide for Planning and Design – Produced in partnership with the Great Plains Extension Partnership, this field-ready pocket guide takes the same approach as the Vulnerability Guide (see above) and combines it with NRCS conservation planning processes to help practitioners design and implement proactive conservation that defends intact cores and reduces risk and vulnerability of grasslands to woody species encroachment.
Review WLFW science publications related to Woody Species Encroachment
Woody Species Encroachment – Sagebrush Biome
Woody species encroachment is one of the biggest threats facing the sagebrush biome, especially in the Great Basin. Reducing woody species encroachment has direct benefits for sagebrush-dependent wildlife like sage grouse and sagebrush songbirds. WLFW has been a long-time leader in studying the effects of woody species encroachment, the benefits of removing woody species, and promoting science-backed treatments that work at scale.
Added NRCS practices eligible for climate-smart funding:
- Mitigation Practice: Grazing and Pasture
- Code 314: Brush Management (acres). Used to remove woody invasive vegetation and the removed material will be mechanically treated and left onsite.
- CSP Enhancement Activity: Brush management to improve wildlife habitat.
- Mitigation Practice: Grazing and Pasture
- Code 338: Prescribed Burning (acres).
- CSP Enhancement Activity: Strategically planned, patch burning for grazing distribution and wildlife habitat.
Existing WLFW-supported efforts:
- Warner Mountains long-term conifer removal and research project – For more than a decade, NRCS, BLM, and partners have worked across public and private land in the Warner Mountains of southeastern Oregon to remove encroaching woody species. In addition to improving forage for livestock and other wildlife, the project has boosted sage grouse populations. Researchers found that sage grouse population growth rates in the treated site were 12% higher than those in the untreated site.
- Southwest Montana Sagebrush Partnership – In southwest Montana, a creative, forward-thinking partnership including Montana-NRCS has been using Defend the Core and spatial targeting to remove encroaching conifers on private and public lands.
Review WLFW science publications related to Woody Species Encroachment
Riparian and Wet Meadow Degradation
Mesic, or wet, habitats are rare in sagebrush country; only two percent of the biome is considered mesic habitat. However, these areas play an outsized role for wildlife and help reduce the effects of rangeland fire. Restoring wet meadows and riparian areas through the low-tech, process-based restoration practices promoted by WLFW is cost-effective and provides significant benefits to wildlife and human communities.
Added NRCS practices eligible for climate-smart funding:
- Mitigation Practice: Agroforestry, Forestry and Wildlife Habitat
- Code 643: Restoration of Rare or Declining Natural Communities. Used to restore floodplain hydrology.
- CSP Enhancement Activity: Low-tech process-based restoration to enhance floodplain connectivity.
Existing WLFW-supported efforts:
- WLFW’s Water is Life campaign – Launched in 2017, WLFW’s Water is Life campaign outlines and details innovative, low-tech, process-based restoration techniques, like Zeedyk structures and beaver dam analogs, that restore wet meadows and riparian areas.
- Utah State University Low-Tech, Process-Based Restoration (PBR) Curriculum – WLFW and USU have partnered to design and deliver a low-tech, process-based riparian restoration curriculum available virtually and to produce and provide a free manual and pocket guide for low-tech, process-based riparian restoration.
Review WLFW science publications related to Wet Meadow and Riparian Degradation
Land-use Conversion
Strategically placed conservation easements are one of the best tools available for protecting working lands with benefits for landowners, wildlife, and communities. The NRCS has long provided funding support, technical assistance, and conservation plans to support conservation easements.
There is now increased funding and updated guidance for priority landscapes eligible for climate-smart funding under the NRCS Agricultural Conservation Easement Programs including both Agricultural Land Easements (ACEP-ALE) and the Wetland Reserve Easements (ACEP-WRE).
Added NRCS practices eligible for climate-smart funding:
- Agricultural Conservation Easement Programs – Agricultural Land Easements (ACEP-ALE)
- Grasslands in areas of highest risk for conversion to non-grassland uses to prevent the release of soil carbon stores.
- Agricultural lands under threat of conversion to non-agricultural uses.
- Agricultural Conservation Easement Programs – Wetland Reserve Easements (ACEP-WRE)
- Several geographically specific priorities (i.e., former cranberry bogs, wet meadows, and ephemeral wetlands in grassland ecosystems).
- Several geographically specific priorities (i.e., former cranberry bogs, wet meadows, and ephemeral wetlands in grassland ecosystems).
Existing WFLW-supported efforts:
- Technical assistance and training – NRCS staff work directly with local land trusts and landowners to create conservation easements that meet the landowner’s goals and benefit wildlife. WLFW supports these efforts through education and research that helps target where conservation easements will be the most beneficial.
Review WLFW science publications related to Land Use Conversion
For more information on the NRCS conservation practices now eligible for Climate-Smart funding through IRA, see these resources:
- NRCS Press Release Announcing the Expanded Eligibility
- NRCS Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Factsheet
- NRCS Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Mitigation Activities List for FY 2024
- NRCS State Ranking Deadlines for Conservation Programs
Interested in applying for voluntary conservation program funding in your area?
Producers who are interested in applying for programs with expanded eligibility should contact their local NRCS service center for details. NRCS has made it easy to find the right person who knows the local area and can help with your questions. Simply visit the NRCS Service Center Locator, click on your state, and then your county.
