In northern Arkansas, an NACD Outreach and Technical Assistance (TA) grant has helped the Fulton County Conservation District (FCCD) address conservation on more than 16,000 acres and develop over 70 conservation plans for producers in their county. The TA grant funding, made possible through an agreement between NACD and NRCS, has enabled the district to hire additional staff to help producers plan and implement conservation practices to improve their land’s soil and water through NRCS’ Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).

NACD’s South Central Region Representative Wesley Gibson caught up with Kimberly Krupa with FCCD to learn more about how the TA grant funding has benefited Fulton County.

Wesley: Staff hired with TA grant funding help conservations districts and NRCS respond to strong producer demand for conservation technical and financial assistance. Can you give us a sense of how busy the NRCS field office is that your district supports?

Kimberly: On average, the NRCS Salem Field Office in Arkansas has upwards of 200 applications each year with over 500 separate application funding pools for implementing different conservation practices. The office currently has approximately 90 active contracts being implemented. The majority of our producers are beef cattle ranchers who also grow their own hay to feed their cattle when grazing is unachievable. The most popular conservation practices planned and implemented for these ranchers are: fencing (electric and barbed); watering systems (livestock pipeline, heavy use area, and watering facility); and pasture management (brush management, herbaceous weed treatment, conservation cover, and forage and biomass planting). These practices help landowners raise their cattle in a way that improves soil health and keeps animal waste out of our streams and waterways.

Wesley: How has your district been able to earn and keep the trust of Fulton County’s producers to get conservation on the ground?

Kimberly: Our TA grant hire, District Technician Justin Dunavant, and producers in our county often eat breakfast at the same local restaurant. Once producers discovered his employment with the conservation district, Justin has been asked many questions over breakfast about conservation programs and funding opportunities. His outreach in the mornings may not be typical, but word of mouth gets around in small town America and he is helping to connect landowners to conservation opportunities with positive results.

Additionally, we’ve had a couple of local producers concerned about strings attached to conservation programs. Justin made them feel at ease by affirming that our office is here to help with their resource concerns, and there are no repercussions to signing up with any of the programs offered through either NRCS or the Fulton County Conservation District.

Wesley: How has the TA grant funding helped Fulton County’s producers?

Kimberly: Landowners may not know the conservation practices best for their land and operations. This is where our technical assistance shines. Justin creates a one-on-one relationship with producers and listens to their conservation concerns and goals. He, along with co-workers, then formulate start-to-finish options that will get them to their goals. He also shares information on financial assistance available through the NRCS office, as well as other funding sources. Justin is also out there in the field physically helping producers with tasks like fence installation, equipment usage education, and more.

Wesley: How is your district reaching historically underserved producers?

Kimberly: The more people we educate on the importance of conserving our natural resources, the better it is for everyone. We reach historically underserved producers through various avenues such as word of mouth, farm visits, and field days. Through interaction and truly listening, Justin can inform them of conservation practices suited to their land and operations along with sources of funding available to assist them. Often, they are not aware of these opportunities.

Wesley: How would your producers and the health of soil and water in your community be impacted if your district didn’t have this TA funding?

Kimberly: If FCCD didn’t get this funding, it would limit our office’s availability to have that one-on-one relationship with producers. The producers would still be raising cattle, but they would have less knowledge about ways to raise them with a concern for the environment in mind. They may continue practices of old days–-letting their cattle go directly into the streams to drink, grazing the land in ways that cause erosion, manually delivering water to the fields, and so on.

Tags: Technical Assistance, arkansas