Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans Funding Opportunity
 

Bangor, ME – June 1, 2009 – Do you have an expired or expiring State of Maine Nutrient Management Plan and you want to develop a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan (CNMP)? The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has a new opportunity through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program that may provide you funds to help get your State of Maine plan updated.

A CNMP, which is unique to animal feeding operations, is developed to assist an owner/operator in meeting all applicable local, tribal, State and Federal water quality goals or regulations. It is a grouping of conservation practices and management activities which, when implemented as part of a conservation system, will help to ensure that both production and natural resource protection goals are achieved. A CNMP incorporates practices to utilize animal manure and organic by-products as a beneficial resource. It addresses natural resource concerns that may exist on the farmstead, including soil erosion, manure and organic by-products, and their potential impacts on water quality.

Through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, NRCS will pay up to 75% of the cost of a CNMP, based on both the number of animal units and the number of acres that will be addressed. To be eligible for Environmental Quality Incentive Program funding to develop a CNMP you will need to have up-to-date soil and manure tests for all fields.

Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans will be developed by a Technical Service Provider, who is certified by NRCS and placed on an “approved list” to provide technical assistance to farmers and others for specific conservation programs administered by USDA.

For more information about this and other NRCS programs, contact your local USDA Service Center listed in your telephone directory under U.S. Government or visit www.me.nrcs.usda.gov.
 

The following document requires Adobe Acrobat Reader (.pdf)

CNMP Fact Sheet (.pdf)

Maine NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program website

National Environmental Quality Incentives Program website

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