REMINDER: Obligate VSP Capital Upfront Funds
Due by December 31, 2025
The $40,000 in VSP Capital Upfront funding has been fully or partially obligated by almost half of our counties as of mid-October. Please work with your county work group to get projects approved and entered in CPDS for these funds. Please notify Mike Poteet with your Participant ID and any relevant notes about the proposed project(s). Our team will work to have an approval back to you within 2 business days. The deadline for submission of these requests is December 31, 2025. Any unobligated funds must be returned to SCC in Q1 2026 for use in later VSP Capital funding rounds.
Please complete these three tasks by December 31, 2025:
1. The funds need to be obligated to a project locally – meaning:
a. they have been approved by your work group, and
b. entered in CPDS.
2. Notify via email, Mike Poteet, MPoteet@scc.wa.gov; that the project has been entered in CPDS.
a. Please await an approval email (provided less than two days from time of request).
3. Projects must score 20 points in eligibility criteria, as stated in the VSP Funding Guidelines.
Operating Funds & Cost-Share Eligibility
VSP’s Operating funds (formerly called Implementation funding) were described in the most recent update to the VSP Funding Guidelines. For accounting and contracting purposes, Operating funds are tracked as Outcome #1 with all counties. These funds are eligible to be used for cost-share projects and DIPs with cooperating landowners.
If your county wishes to use Operating funds for cost-share or DIP, you must:
1. Notify our Contracts team and request the allocation of a portion of your Operating funds to a separate line item under Outcome #1.
2. You must get any project using those funds approved by your local work group in a public meeting. Minutes from the meeting showing work group approval for the use of funds must be submitted to SCC.
Any project using Operating funds must also be entered in CPDS. For a full summary of requirements on how Operating funds can be used for cost-share or DIP, please see pages 3-7 in the VSP Funding Guidelines.
All VSP Monitoring Plan Review Requests:
On Hold Until August 2026
As the 5-Year Reporting Period begins in November 2025, SCC VSP staff and the Technical Panel will pause reviews of VSP Monitoring Plan requests until August 2026.
This temporary hold is necessary to manage staffing capacity during the intensive review process for a large number of 5-Year Reports, as required under RCW 36.70A.720(2)(b).
Round 2: Competitive Capital Awards Announced
Round 2 of the Competitive Capital applications had 100 projects submitted in CPDS for review, with total funding requested at over $9M, including Technical Assistance. Ten projects were funded across nine counties, totaling approximately $749,600. Of the ten projects awarded there will be a total of 21 Best Management Practices (BMPs) implemented across the state. We thank all VSP participants for their hard work towards critical area protection on ag lands and expect another great round of project applications for the upcoming Round 3 of funding.
Titled: Horse BMPs. Photo By: Unknown. WSCC. (March 2018)
Round 3: VSP Capital Funding
Looking ahead, Round 3 will be pulled on December 1, 2025, with notifications targeted for December 15. Round 3 is anticipated to include funding pool of about $300,000, plus any unused capital funding re-appropriated from the 23–25 biennium. All VSP counties will be notified of the total available funding before the round closes.
Untitled. Photo By: Olivia Schilling. Foster Creek Conservation District. (June 2018)
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