Allegheny County Conservation District (ACCD) is proud to announce it has received funding from both the National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program administered through the United States Department of Agriculture. This funding will advance urban agriculture and ACCD’s Urban Soils Program across the region.

This funding enables ACCD to strengthen partnerships with local farmers and community groups to address urban soil contaminants and support farm and garden projects. Over the past eight years, ACCD’s Urban Soils Program has served as a regional model, raising awareness about the health risks of soil lead exposure and providing technical assistance for safe food production. In 2023 alone, ACCD screened 1,592 soil samples, valued at $47,760, free of charge.

This funding will expand soil testing for heavy metals, particularly lead, and implementation and monitoring of best management practices to improve soil health and promote healthy food production.

Click here to read more. 

 

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) selected Allegheny County Conservation District (ACCD) and partners to provide outreach, education, and technical assistance to urban agricultural producers.

This $9 million USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) grant is administered through To Improve Mississippi Economics (TIME) and funds urban farm outreach initiatives in 10 U.S. cities. This grant is part of a broader $40 million investment enabled by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan.

The funding will support a collaboration among technical service providers to assist urban farmers in learning about and accessing resources. Partners include PASA Sustainable Agriculture, Chatham University, Grow Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, and Hilltop Urban Farm.

ACCD and partners were awarded $894,000, with 38 percent of funding going directly to urban farmers in the form of microgrants to develop critical farm infrastructure. Another percentage supports programs of the partner organizations.

Click here to read more. 

The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) announced the 2024 Urban and Community Conservation (UAC) grant initiative recipients. These grants are open to any conservation district or tribe within the U.S. and its territories.

Allegheny County Conservation District (ACCD) received a $60,000 UAC Implementation Grant. Their project is: “Cultivating healthy soil, just urban agriculture, and community orchards to support Pittsburgh’s communities’ vision for fresh food production.” ACCD and Tree Pittsburgh are collaborating to test and remediate soil on urban agriculture sites throughout Allegheny County, then plant them with edible fruit and nut trees, berries, other perennial edibles and native wildflowers, creating biodiverse and beautiful public orchards that produce free food for residents.

Westmoreland Conservation District received a $10,000 UAC Planning Grant. Their project is: “Identifying Underserved Communities and Evaluating their Needs for Urban Agriculture in Westmoreland County.” The district will identify underserved communities, potential partners, and their specific needs for urban agriculture, which will allow the district to develop a plan to better serve them. The district will learn what resources are available and be able to enhance their capacity to deliver technical assistance.

Since 2016, NACD has led the efforts of this successful grant program in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to help conservation districts and tribes build capacity for urban technical assistance and small-scale conservation, while addressing community needs in both rural and urban areas.

Click here to read the press release. 

 

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a 2024-year round of funding for Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund projects, with additional funds provided by the William Penn Foundation, AstraZeneca, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Berks County Conservation District will receive $127,000 through the program. The grant will assist forest landowners with enrollment into forest management cost-share programs, improving forest health, habitat for golden-winged warbler, and resiliency in the Kittatinny and Schuylkill Highland conservation landscapes.

Click here to read more. 

Friends of the Indiana County Conservation District has announced that it is now accepting applications for the agriculture small grant program funded through the Cambria/Indiana Farmer Assistance Fund at the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies.

The program provides financial support to small farmers in Indiana and Cambria Counties for business plan development or implementation that focuses on sustainable farming models, including providing match funding for sustainable farming projects and the development of conservation best management practices.

Two awards of up to $1,500 will be provided to agricultural producers or landowners engaging in agricultural activities. To be eligible, the applicant’s operation must be in either Indiana or Cambria Counties.

Funding for this grant program has been raised through the Annual Thank a Farmer Dash held every November on the Ghost Town Trail in Ebensburg. The 2024 Thank a Farmer Dash is scheduled for November 16.

For more information about the Agriculture Small Grant Program, visit https://www.iccdpa.org/agriculture-small-grant-program.

The keynote presentation at the 2024 Watershed Congress was “The Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Local Conservation Districts, and You – Helping Achieve Pennsylvania’s Forest and Meadow Goals.” The keynote featured representatives from two Pennsylvania conservation districts discussing a PACD grant program that supports the creation of conventional riparian buffers, multi-functional riparian buffers, and lawn conversions. These programs were developed to help achieve Pennsylvania’s goal of planting 5,000 acres of upland forest and 5,000 acres of meadow by 2025.

The event was held on March 23, 2024, at the Montgomery County Community College, Pottstown, PA.

The speakers included Brian Vadino, Watershed Specialist for the Montgomery County Conservation District. Brian spoke about a project in the Perkiomen Creek Watershed that the districts completed through the PACD Riparian Buffer Sub-Grant for Conservation Districts program.

Kent Himelright, Watershed Coordinator for Berks County Conservation District, spoke about a riparian buffer project at Zartman Farm and a lawn-to-meadow conversion project at the Caernarvon Municipal Authority.

Click here to watch the presentation. 

Financial and other support for the Riparian Buffer Sub-Grant for Conservation Districts program is provided by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Inc. through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Recreation and Conservation.

 

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced up to $101,110,178 in funding for 16 environmental restoration projects of abandoned mine lands (AML) as a part of the Abandoned Mine Lands and Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) Grant Program. These projects focus on reclaiming AML, decreasing AMD, or treating AMD through the construction, operation, and/or maintenance of an AMD treatment facility.

Two conservation districts received grants:

• Clearfield County Conservation District— $533,134
  • Anderson South (Planning and Development)— The project will restore Anderson Creek.
• Indiana County Conservation District— $195,283
  • Bear Run South— The project will include designing, engineering, and permitting two AMD passive treatment systems to replace existing ineffective lime-dosing silos. South Branch Bear Run and discharge areas PA3326 and PA1029 will also be assessed.

Click here to read the entire press release. 

PACD is accepting mini-grant applications from conservation districts for up to $3,000 to implement educational and outreach activities that support and extend the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) work. Projects should focus on CREP enrollment, re-enrollment, and/or CREP maintenance.

Applications will be accepted and approved on a rolling basis until funds are expended.

Project Completion & Final Report Deadline: August 31, 2024

Project examples:

– Walkabouts/field days
– Farmer and landowner workshops
– Riparian buffer workshops
– Workshop series with several topics
– Developing educational materials like brochures, flyers, fact sheets, or even billboards
– Hire interns to provide CREP outreach

We encourage working with CREP partners to complete education and outreach activities. Partners include USDA Farm Service Agency, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, PA Department of Environmental Protection, Pheasants Forever, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Stroud Water Research Center, PA Game Commission, and other conservation districts!

The guidelines, application, and reporting documents for the CREP mini-grant program can be found here.

Financial and other support for the CREP Outreach Program Office Mini-grant Program is provided by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Inc. through a Growing Greener Watershed Protection grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and with additional support from USDA-NRCS.

PACD was awarded a $100,000 Community Conservation Partnerships Program Grant from the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) to offer Lawn Conversion training and mini-grants to Pennsylvania’s conservation districts. The lawn conversion program will help the Commonwealth achieve a goal of planting 5,000 acres of upland forest and 5,000 acres of meadow by 2025.

The Lawn Conversion for Conservation Districts training recording and a copy of Ryan Davis’s presentation are available on the PA Clean Water Academy. Click here to access the course page. (You will need to be logged in.)

The application and other lawn conversion sub-grant program materials are available here. 

It is recommended that you complete the training before applying for the sub-grant.

Questions may be directed to Holly Miller, PACD Program Manager, at hmiller@pacd.org or (717) 794-6105.

In the 2022-23 Nonpoint Source Pollution Educational Mini-grant round, 37 projects were completed by 27 conservation districts, reaching over 1,571 adults in the target audience.

• 2022-23 NPS Educational Mini-grant Program Outcomes 
• Map of 2022-23 Nonpoint Source Pollution Mini-grant Projects

Financial and other support for this project is provided by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Inc. through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act, administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.