Farm Services Agency (FSA) Emergency Conservation Program (ECP)

The Emergency Conservation Program (ECP), administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA), provides emergency funding and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate farmland damaged by natural disasters and to implement emergency water conservation measures in periods of severe drought.

Contact: Jennifer Dutton, County Executive Director, Sweetwater/Sublette - Uinta County

Phone: 307-362-3062 x2

Jennifer.Dutton@wy.usda.gov

Website: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/FactSheets/2017/emergency_conservation_program_oct2017.pdf

ECP is administered by FSA state and county committees and county offices. Producers should inquire with their local FSA county office regarding ECP enrollment periods and eligibility.

Cost Share:

Cost-share payments are:

1. Up to 75 percent of the cost to implement approved restoration practices;
2. Up to 90 percent if limited resource producers; and
3. Limited to $200,000 per person or legal entity per disaster.

Who is eligible?

FSA county committees determine land eligibility based on on-site inspections of damaged land and the type and extent of damage. Eligible land includes land used for:

1. Commercial farming, ranching and orchard operations;
2. Growing nursery stock and Christmas tree plantations;
3. Grazing for commercial livestock production; and
4. Conservation structures; such as, waterways, terraces, diversions and windbreaks.

Conservation problems existing before the applicable disaster event are ineligible for ECP assistance.

To rehabilitate farmland, ECP participants may implement emergency conservation practices, such as:

• Debris removal from farmland (cleanup of woody material, sand, rock and trash on cropland or pastureland);
• Grading, shaping or leveling land (filling gullies, re-leveling irrigated farmland and incorporating sand and silt);
• Restoring fences (livestock cross fences, boundary fences, cattle gates or wildlife exclusion fence from agricultural land);
• Restoring conservation structures (waterways, diversion ditches, buried irrigation mainlines and permanently installed ditching system); and
• Providing emergency water during periods of severe drought (grazing and confined livestock and existing irrigation systems for orchards and vineyards).