By Jim Reece - The Natural Resources Conservation Service announced that it has environmental grants available for local ranchers and farmers in Amador County. The U.S. Department of Agriculture offers the funding through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, with applications being accepted from eligible farmers and ranchers for the 2009 Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The deadline for applying for the EQIP grants is October 31st. Amy Rocha of NRCS in Amador announced the upcoming grant period in a release last week. Rocha said the Environmental Quality Incentives Program offers funds on a cost-share basis to landowners for a variety of practices, including cross-fence and water development, tree and shrub establishment, and forest stand and grazing systems improvements. Rocha said “applications from eligible agriculture producers are scored and ranked based on a locally modified scoring system striving to get the best environmental benefits.” The program gives each county the chance to focus federal grant funds and prioritize conservation work to address its most pressing resource concerns. Rocha said Amador, Calaveras and Tuolumne county farmers and ranchers were awarded contracts totaling more than 1.6 million in 2008. Primary areas of concern addressed with those grants were rangeland health, fuel load reduction, water quality and quantity and soil erosion. Rocha said the program’s goal is “to promote agricultural production and environmental quality as compatible national goals.” The program’s rules were revised by Congress in the 2008 Farm Bill, to increase participation in the program. It offers financial and technical assistance to implement measures that will address water quality and erosion concerns, restoration of wildlife habitat and transition to organic farming. EQIP funds are a way for landowners to solve a resource problem such as fixing a nuisance gulley. It can also be used to address regulatory concerns like feedlot rules or to receive incentives for using conservation tillage. For information, call the Amador office NCRS office at (209) 223-6528.