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Jackson County 2004 EQIP Program


Executive Summary

The Natural Resources Conservation Service of USDA in Jackson County, Alabama, will hold a signup for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) for the 2004 Fiscal year. This signup will be held on a continuous basis. Any eligible landuser who has a resource concern or problem on pastureland, hayland, cropland, forestland, or wildlife land may apply for assistance through this program.

Application for program participation may be made at the NRCS office, or the Farm Service Agency (FSA) office, located at 2345 South Broad St, Scottsboro, Alabama. Office hours are 7:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m. (lunch 12:00–12:30), Monday through Friday. The telephone number is 256-574-1005, and the fax number is 256-574-0923. The local contact person is Jim Frost, District Conservationist.

The Jackson County EQIP program will offer eligible applicants the opportunity to enter into multi-year cost-sharing agreements through the USDA-NRCS. The resource concerns to be addressed under the program are: 

  1. Water Quality/Animal Waste
  2. Erosion/Sediment Control
  3. Grazing Lands. 

All three resource concerns have been assigned equal priority by the Conservation Advisory Committee. Other resource concerns involving Water Conservation and At-Risk species will not be considered in the 2004 program county program.

The first batching period will end April 30, 2004. Applications received after the close of the batching period will be evaluated and considered for funding in subsequent batching periods, if funds continue to be available, each ending on the last day of each month. Unfunded applications remaining on September 30, 2004, will be cancelled.

Applications which represent the greatest environmental need, i.e., the highest score on the worksheet will be funded first. Points scored on an application relative to any of the identified resource concerns will be summed to produce a composite score that will be used to determine final ranking order. Contracts will be developed for approved applications, based on the order of descending points, until all available funds are obligated. Applications scoring 0 points will be ineligible for program participation. In the event of a tie score, the application with the earliest submittal date will have priority.

Practices listed on the State list of eligible cost-share practices (below) are available for contracting, except for the following practices: 

(328) Conservation Crop Rotation
(552) Irrigation Regulating Reservoir
(449) Irrigation Water Management
(590) Nutrient Management
(643) Restoration of Declining Habitats
(666) Forest Stand Improvement
(394) Firebreaks. 

Cost-share rates listed under the State guidelines will be used for contracting. 

NOTE: The maximum acreage per applicant for the (329) Residue Management practice is set at 85 acres at the $40 per acre rate and 200 acres at the $5 per acre rate.

Applications may also be taken on-line at: http://www.sc.egov.usda.gov. Additional information is available at: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/eqip/.  

 These documents require Adobe Acrobat.
Adobe Acrobat DocumentConservation Program Application - CCC1200 (330 KB)
Adobe Acrobat DocumentState Ranking Tool (76 KB)
Adobe Acrobat DocumentState Practices, Cost-Share Rates, and Restrictions (100 KB)

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