Alaska uses Streamlined Process to Accelerate High Demand Conservation Funding to Producers
 At a time of unprecedented producer demand, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has developed a faster process to deliver conservation funding to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners. Using its “Act Now” authority, NRCS can now pre-approve applications when they meet or exceed a state’s pre-determined minimum ranking score. This means funding decisions can be made without having to wait for all applications to be reviewed and ranked. This allows farmers to start conservation projects earlier instead of waiting long periods to know if a project will be funded.
“Producers are demanding conservation investments, and we’re streamlining our processes to deliver faster. By using the Act Now process, NRCS can accelerate conservation on the ground to address food security needs in Alaska,” said Alan D. McBee, Alaska State Conservationist.
In Alaska, applications for the Seasonal High Tunnel conservation practice will use the Act Now authority. A seasonal high tunnel provides a controlled environment to protect crops from frost and wind that can extend the growing season, increase crop diversity, and improve the health and vigor of crops. NRCS provides cost share assistance on high tunnels through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
To learn more about NRCS programs, producers can contact their local USDA Service Center.
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Planning for Your Garden: High and Low Tunnels
 NRCS Soil Conservationist Emily MacDonald (left) and Alaska producer Tiffany McCorrison inside a seasonal high tunnel in Ninilchik, Alaska.
By Emily MacDonald, Soil Conservationist, Homer
In Alaska, growing a vegetable garden can be tricky. Our winters are long, and the summer tends to be cool and wet on the Kenai Peninsula which can limit the species and production of the plants you grow. A quick internet search will give you dozens of ways you can do this: geodetic domes, high tunnels, low tunnels, caterpillar tunnel, tomato specific tunnels, green houses and so much more. The basic premise is they collect heat from the sun and warm the soil and plants during the day; they create a barrier from frosts; and they allow you to control the amount of water your plants receive. These types of systems are all over the Peninsula, but the most common and visible by far is the high tunnel.
High tunnels generally come in kits that range in size. They have a metal frame and are a permanent structure designed to last for several years and fit your whole garden. They are at least 6 feet tall, but many are over 12 feet tall allowing for trellising of plants or even trees. Kits are covered in 6-mil plastic with add-ons like roll up sides and auto-vents. High tunnels require maintenance including repairing plastic and a plan for winter that includes either removing the snow or the plastic in the winter to prevent collapse of the frame.
Low tunnels are like a high tunnel but smaller in scale. They are less than 4 feet tall, use metal hoops, and each tunnel typical covers only one row of your garden. They also need to be anchored on the edges with sandbags or stakes. They are very flexible and can be moved multiple times throughout the season, for example protecting early greens then covering your tomato starts after the last frost to give them a jump start.
There are multiple purposes for using a low tunnel, from season extension to pest protection to sun protection. If season extension is your goal, use a greenhouse plastic ranging from 4 to 8 mil. For pest protection from things like root magots you can use a woven cloth-like material that is permeable, which allows rain in and offers some frost protection. A sun cloth is used to reduce the intensity of the sun, which can help greens that are prone to bolting hold off longer.
Interested in a high or low tunnel? The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) offers technical financial assistance to implement these practices and many others.
To start the process and learn all the details, contact your local USDA Service Center and make an appointment with a conservation planner.
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Conservation Assistance for Trails & Walkways
 The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offers technical and financial assistance to help farmers, ranchers, forest managers, landowners, Tribes & other organizations install trails and walkways.
Trails and Walkways are constructed paths with a vegetated, earthen, gravel, paved or
other hard surface. They are used to facilitate the movement of people, domestic animals,
and off-road vehicles.
Trails can provide a conservation benefit in the
following ways:
- Protect ecologically sensitive, erosive, or potentially erosive sites
- Provide pedestrian or off-road vehicle access for agricultural, forestry, construction, or maintenance operations
- Provide or improve animal access to forage, water, working/handling facilities, or shelter
- Provide trails or walkways for recreational activities or access to recreation site
NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to plan, design and construct trails and walkways on privately-managed lands.
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Anthony Mallott from Sealaska receives Olin Sims Conservation Leadership Award
Anthony Mallott, former CEO of Sealaska, accepts the Olin Sims Conservation Leadership Award at the NACD 78th Annual Meeting in San Diego this month.
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) selected Anthony Mallott, President and (former) CEO of Sealaska Corporation as the winner of the Olin Sims Conservation Leadership Award. Anthony is the first Alaska Native and/or American Indian to receive this prestigious national award. The award is presented by NRCS and NACD in memory of NACD President Olin Sims to an up-and-coming leader who demonstrates excellence in promoting and leading voluntary conservation on private lands. The award was presented at the NACD Annual Meeting this month in San Diego.
Anthony Mallott started his relationship with southeast Alaska’s rugged landscape the way his ancestors had for thousands of years – he was born into it. As part Lingít of the Tsaagweidí (Killer whale) Clan, and part Koyukon Athabascan Caribou Clan, he joined his family in traditions of hunting, fishing, and gathering food – and caring for the lands that provide sustenance, medicine, and culture upon which Alaska Natives have thrived for millennia.
The 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) established corporations around traditional village sites as well as regional corporations for each of the major indigenous cultural regions of the state, conveying ownership of lands and resources for the corporations to steward on behalf of their Alaska Native shareholders. Located in what is part of the world’s largest coastal temperate rainforest, southeast Alaska’s ANCSA corporations’ primary asset was timber, and they joined the Tongass National Forest in developing a substantial logging industry in the last decades of the 20th century.
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, Anthony spent 18 years working in the investment management field before taking the lead of Sealaska Corporation in 2014. While NRCS had an established working relationship assisting Sealaska and other ANCSA corporations throughout Southeast Alaska with conservation, the corporation redoubled its efforts to conserve forest resources that provide long term benefits for rural Alaska residents and corporation shareholders alike – supporting the plants, waters, fish, and wildlife that are so critical to the lives and livelihoods of the region’s residents. Food, medicine, culture, jobs…they are intertwined, inseparable.
Under his leadership, Sealaska forged agreements with multiple village corporations to help those with less staff and technical resources with forest planning and management. The result was more than 55 Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contracts with multiple ANCSA landowners in the region, implementing over 30,000 acres of forest stand improvement, pruning, and woody residue treatment throughout the region. Sealaska’s staff worked closely with NRCS staff to develop conservation plans for its own lands, assisted NRCS with inspections of completed work, and provided technical and administrative support to its fellow forest landowners, along with field training to tribal work crews on everything from chainsaw use to field data collection.
Continuing in the spirit of wooch.éen – working together in Lingít – Anthony ensured Sealaska is the lead on two tribally-led, innovative Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) projects: the Hoonah Native Forest Partnership and the Keex Kwaan Community Forest Partnership. Each of these partnerships pioneered the use of lidar paired with data collected by local work crews to evaluate resource conditions across rugged, remote landscapes near the communities of Hoonah and Kake. The local tribes play significant roles in each of these partnerships, helping care for the resources that provide food and income for tribal and rural communities, while Sealaska provides administrative and technical support for on-the-ground projects that improve forest health, and fish and wildlife habitat on private and public lands.
Anthony has also been an influential proponent of developing local businesses that are compatible with land and resource stewardship, providing economic opportunities in rural Alaska. Recognizing that the forests of the region can provide much more than timber, Anthony helped establish Alaska as a leader in the world’s carbon market programs with Sealaska being the first major landowner in the state to register with California’s cap-and-trade program in 2018.
The recognition of the integral relationship between people and place is what led Anthony to convince Sealaska to pledge $10 million as seed money for the Seacoast Trust, whose mission is to support communities in Southeast Alaska in achieving their goals for collective well-being, sustainable economic prosperity, environmental stewardship and natural resource management. The Trust will enable local nonprofit partners to engage in “triple bottom line” projects that integrate resource stewardship with community development and economic opportunities without being solely dependent upon federal or state funding programs, which are often encumbered by match requirements that can be challenging for rural nonprofits to achieve and sustain.
Anthony’s leadership at Sealaska has ensured conservation of the corporation’s own forest lands in the region and has helped other private landowners achieve forest management success in southeast Alaska. He has inspired the expansion of local and tribally-led work that prioritizes environmental stewardship and local economies in the region—all while still hunting and fishing to feed his family and connect with the traditions and people of this amazing place.
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Planning and Capacity Grants for Conservation Districts and Tribal Conservation Districts - Apply by May 15
From the National Association of Conservation Districts
The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) is proud to be a recipient of a USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant. Through this program, NACD will competitively select and fund a series of locally-led pilot projects across the U.S. and territories. We anticipate reaching 1,400 producers, getting conservation on over 430,000 acres, and reducing or sequestering over 1.5 million metric tons of CO2e.
NACD released a Request for Proposals for Planning & Capacity Grants. Proposals are due May 15 with an anticipated award of August 2024.
The maximum Planning & Capacity Grant is $15,000 (10% match). NACD anticipates award of up to 50 Planning & Capacity Grants. Recipients of Planning & Capacity grants will be eligible to compete for a future pool of project implementation funds. It is anticipated that implementation or project grants resulting from Planning & Capacity grants will range from $50,000 to $750,000 per project.
It is anticipated that the RFP for this project pool will be released in Spring 2025. Projects will be evaluated and selected on a competitive basis. The competition for future project grants will be limited to those with a Planning & Capacity grant. Please note, however, that having received a Planning & Capacity grant does not guarantee that a recipient will receive a project implementation grant.
Match may be waived for Planning & Capacity Grants if 100% of the project serves
underserved producers.
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America the Beautiful Challenge Request for Proposals Due April 4
From the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
 The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), through anticipated cooperative agreements from the Department of the Interior (DOI), Department of Defense (DOD), and the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), is releasing the America the Beautiful Challenge (ATBC) 2024 Request for Proposals (RFP). The ATBC vision is to streamline grant funding opportunities for new voluntary conservation and restoration projects throughout the United States. This RFP consolidates funding from multiple federal agencies and the private sector to enable applicants to conceive and develop large-scale, locally led projects that address shared funder priorities spanning public, Tribal, and private lands.
In year three of the ATBC, approximately $119 million will be awarded in nationwide funding to conserve, connect, and restore the lands, waters, and wildlife upon which we all depend. The ATBC seeks to fund projects across the following themes:
- Conserving and restoring rivers, coasts, wetlands, and watersheds
- Conserving and restoring forests, grasslands and important ecosystems that serve as carbon sinks
- Connecting and reconnecting wildlife corridors, large landscapes, watersheds, and seascapes
- Improving ecosystem and community resilience to flooding, drought, and other climate-related threats
- Expanding access to the outdoors, particularly in underserved communities
Collectively, these themes invite applicants to develop landscape-level ATBC proposals that address conservation and public access needs with: cumulative benefits to fish and wildlife, enhanced carbon sequestration and storage, benefits to and engagement with underserved communities, and protection of ecosystems through resilience-focused and nature-based solutions.
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National Coastal Resilience Fund
Pre-Proposals Due April 10
From the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is pleased to announce the 2024 National Coastal Resilience Fund (NCRF) Request for Proposals (RFP). NFWF will make investments in planning, design, and implementation of natural and nature-based solutions. The goal is to enhance protection for coastal communities from the impacts of storms, floods, and other natural coastal hazards and to improve habitats for fish and wildlife.
NFWF will award approximately $140 million in grants to create and restore natural systems to increase protection for communities from current and future coastal hazards and improve habitats for fish and wildlife species. The availability of federal funds estimated in this solicitation is contingent upon the federal appropriations process; funding decisions will be made based on level of funding and timing of when it is received by NFWF.
Natural habitats such as coastal marshes and wetlands, coastal forests, rivers, lakes, and streams, dune and beach systems, and oyster and coral reefs – maintained at a significant size for the habitat type and natural hazard being addressed – can provide communities with enhanced protection and buffering from the growing impacts of natural coastal hazards, including rising sea- and lake- levels, changing flood patterns, increased frequency and intensity of storms, and other environmental stressors. NFWF’s regional coastal resilience assessments identify areas, called Resilience Hubs1, where natural resource restoration efforts will have the greatest impact for human community resilience and fish and wildlife. Projects need not be located in an area identified by NFWF as a Resilience Hub to be eligible, but applicants may find this tool useful to assess projects based on the dual benefits to habitats and human communities.
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Know Your Land Talks Coming Up In-Person and Virtual
 Alaskan knowledge for growing food and stewarding land. 🤩 All sessions are FREE and happen every other Thursday from 6 - 7 pm.
Got property? Got garden ambitions? Speakers will share Alaskan knowledge for growing food and stewarding land. We've made it easy to attend in person (Homer/Anchor Point area) or join us online via Zoom from anywhere around Alaska!
🌿 Crop Rotation for Successful Harvests - Feb 29
🧄🥕 🧑🌾 Local Grower Spotlight w/ Bill Bartee - Mar 14
💦 Efficient Irrigation Systems w/ Experts from Dripworks - Mar 28
🌱 Garden Soils 101 - Apr 11
🐔 Minimize Feed Costs By Optimizing Your Pasture - Apr 25
To participate: In person - join us at the KPC Kachemak Bay Campus, 533 E. Pioneer Ave., Homer, AK Via Zoom - register online at https://www.homerswcd.org/
Detailed descriptions of each session's topics and our lineup of speakers will be shared via Facebook events. Keep an eye out for those.
This free series is brought to you by the Homer Soil & Water Conservation District, the Alaska USDA-NRCS Homer field office, and the KPC Kachemak Bay Campus. We would like to thank the National Association of Conservation Districts for providing the funding to make the series possible.
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