Emergency Watershed Protection
FreeWater · Free, from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
Federal help to stabilise a watershed after a disaster, which after a fire means the burn scars, the slipping slopes and the choked channels the fire leaves behind. A landowner cannot apply: a public sponsor, usually a county or a resource conservation district, applies on behalf of an area, and whether it runs at all depends on the funding available. If you have a post fire erosion problem, ring your district or county and ask whether they are pursuing it.
You cannot apply for this yourself and it is not a slip of paperwork you can get round. A project has to begin with a sponsor, and the sponsors named are cities, counties, towns, conservation districts and federally recognised tribes; a private landowner applies through one of them. Nor does it start on request: the NRCS State Conservationist declares the local watershed emergency, working with the sponsor. What it then pays for is the work after the disaster, which after a fire means stabilising banks, clearing debris and protecting houses and infrastructure from what comes down the hill in the first heavy rain. So the useful call is to your conservation district or county, asking whether they are pursuing it for your area. Where this comes from
Who qualifies Applications come through public sponsors such as counties and RCDs, not directly from landowners.
Listed on their own website or an official directory. We have not called it.
Where it applies
Everywhere in the United States.
The states with county pages in this directory:
Also from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
- Conservation Stewardship ProgramCost share
- Environmental Quality Incentives ProgramCost share
- Web Soil SurveyFreePlanning
