Conservation Stewardship Program

* If you encounter any problems with the files on this page, please contact Molly McDonough at 717-237-2208.

Interim Final Rule Comment Period Extended to October 28, 2009 (pdf)

Farmer's Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program Now Available

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's Farmer's Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program is now available online! The seventeen-page guide gives farmers the basic eligibility requirements, an overview of the enrollment process, and application steps. The guide also includes answers to frequently asked questions with information specific to beginning farmers, organic farmers, farmers participating in the EQIP organic initiative, and tips for all farmers on how to maximize their points and payments.

Introduction

The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is a voluntary conservation program that encourages producers to address resource concerns in a comprehensive manner by:

Improving, maintaining, and managing existing conservation activities; and
Undertaking additional conservation activities.

CSP is available in Pennsylvania on private agricultural lands and non-industrial forest land. The program provides equitable access to all producers, regardless of operation size, crops produced, or geographic location.

Program Description

Through CSP, NRCS will provide financial and technical assistance to eligible producers to conserve and enhance soil, water, air, and related natural resources on their land. Eligible lands include cropland, grassland, improved pastureland, nonindustrial private forest lands, and other private agricultural land (including cropped woodland, marshes, and agricultural land used for the production of livestock) on which resource concerns related to agricultural production could be addressed. Participation in the program is voluntary.

CSP encourages land stewards to improve their conservation performance by installing and adopting additional activities, and improving, maintaining, and managing existing activities on agricultural land and nonindustrial private forest land. CSP is available nationwide on a continuous application basis.

The State Conservationist, in consultation with the State Technical Committee and local work groups, will focus program impacts on natural resources that are of specific concern for Pennsylvania, or specific geographic areas within the State. Applications will be evaluated relative to other applications addressing similar priority resource concerns to facilitate a competitive ranking process among applicants who face similar resource challenges. Because of acreage and funding limits, not all applicants may be offered a contract.

The entire agricultural operation must be enrolled and must include all agricultural land that will be under the applicant's control for the five-year term of the proposed contract.

CSP offers participants two possible types of payments :

Annual payment for installing and adopting additional activities, and improving, maintaining, and managing existing activities
Supplemental payment for the adoption of resource-conserving crop rotations.

Eligibility

2009 Conservation Stewardship Self-Screening Checklist (PDF, 32KB)

Application

Conservation farmers and forest managers will need to submit an application by September 30, 2009 to be considered in the first ranking cycle. CSP has a continuous open application policy; applications received after September 30th will be considered in the subsequent ranking cycle.

Payment Information

2009 Estimated Payment Range

2009 CSP - Conservation Stewardship Program - Priority Resource Concerns

	Area	Priority Resource Concerns
Ranking Pools		Air Quality	Animals	Energy	Plants	Soil Erosion	Soil Quality	Water Quality	Water Quantity
Agricultural Lands	Northwest		X	X		X	x	X
	Southwest		X			X	x	X	X
	Northwest Central		X		X	X	x	X
	Southwest Central				X	X	x	X
	Central		X	X		X	x	X
	Southeast Central	X	X			X	x	X
	Northeast			X	X	X	x	X
	Southeast	X	X			X	x	X
Nonindustrial Private Forest Land	Statewide		X		X	X	x	X

Northwest Counties	Southwest Counties	Northwest Central	Southwest Central
Erie	Allegheny	Cameron	Bedford
Crawford	Armstrong	Clearfield	Blair
Mercer	Beaver	Clarion	Cambria
Lawrence	Butler	Elk	Fulton
	Fayette	Forest	Huntingdon
	Greene	Jefferson	Somerset
	Indiana	McKean
	Washington	Potter
	Westmoreland	Warren
		Venango

Central	Southeast Central	Northeast	Southeast
Centre	Adams	Bradford	Berks
Clinton	Cumberland	Lackawanna	Bucks
Columbia	Dauphin	Monroe	Chester
Juniata	Franklin	Pike	Delaware
Lycoming	Lancaster	Sullivan	Lehigh
Mifflin	Lebanon	Susquehanna	Montgomery
Montour	Perry	Tioga	Northampton
Northumberland	York	Wayne	Philadelphia
Snyder		Wyoming	Schuylkill
Union
Luzerne
Carbon

Highlights and Announcements

July 29, 2009 - The Public Comment period for Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) Interim Final Rule (PDF, 134KB) is open until September 28, 2009.

2009 Enhancement Activity Job Sheets

"Enhancement" means a type of conservation activity used to treat natural resources and improve conservation performance. Enhancements are installed at a level of management intensity that exceeds the sustainable level for a given resource concern, and those directly related to a practice standard are applied in a manner that exceeds the minimum treatment requirements of the standard.

2009 Conservation Stewardship Program Activity List (PDF)

Air Quality
Animal
Energy
Plant
Soil Erosion
Soil Quality
Water Quality
Water Quantity
Special Projects

Pennsylvania Supplements

Pennsylvania's Resource Conserving Crops for CSP

Program Contact

Barry Frantz, Assistant State Conservationist for Programs, 717-237-2216

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