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Illinois Soil & Water Conservation Districts Announce New Funding Sources

The executive director of the Association of Illinois Soil & Water Conservation Districts (AISWCD) says four new partnerships will bring in nearly $17 million in new funding over the next five years.

Michael Woods says the agreements with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provide programming, personnel and financial support for the district.

“We have been demanding these investments for generations.” He says, “We cannot sit back and say we’ll wait and see what happens. We have to step up, bring in innovative ideas and invest those dollars if we want to see continued investment and make a difference in the future.”

Woods says the funding will ease the hardships faced by counties following a $4 million cut to soil and water funding in the most recent state budget.

“It does not alleviate the situation, but it shows and demonstrates that there are people who want to continue to invest on the front lines, locally and in soil and water conservation,” he says.

He explains to Brownfield that the new programs will improve SWCD’s ability to reach many areas of the community.

“New ways to engage our traditional audiences, through technical assistance on a cost-shared basis,” he says, “to also work with new audiences who may be looking at how we can extend conservation to our urban areas, our urban/rural areas and even to the edges of the field.”

Woods says more details on the new programs will be announced soon, and says the association is also continuing its efforts to reinstate state funding in the upcoming fall veto session.

Specific new AISWCD funding partnerships include:

• NRCS Program Support Agreement: The newly negotiated one-year extension of the NRCS/AISWCD Program Assistance Agreement for over $6.4 million will provide funding to districts that have elected to provide technical assistance to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

• IRA Funding Agreement: Through a new NRCS agreement using Inflation Reduction Act funds, AISWCD will receive $4 million to advance outreach and technical assistance for climate-smart practices, help local counties promote local working groups, and advance watershed planning at the land use council level. Individual counties will be invited to participate in the initiative, which will see funding distributed over three years.

• Funding through the Regional Nature Conservation Partnership Programme: The Sands County Foundation has invited AISWCD to partner with its $13.8 million Regional Conservation Partnership Program initiative to advance farmer-led water quality improvement in Illinois. About $5.6 million of that will go to Illinois. The NRCS grant will enable an Illinois partnership led by AISWCD and American Farmland Trust to initiate farmer-led watershed groups across the state through Soil and Water Conservation Districts. The funding will provide incentives and technical assistance for a variety of agricultural conservation efforts.

• Funding the Working Land Climate Corps: The USDA announced 28 host organizations to train future conservation and climate leaders as part of President Biden’s American Climate Corps. AISWCD was named to this elite group of conservation organizations to establish and advance a Working Lands Climate Corps (WLCC). The AISWCD program, called Conservation Outreach Volunteers Engaging Resiliency (COVER) Corps, received over $600,000 to train the next generation of conservation and climate leaders, provide technical training and career opportunities to young people, and help them develop climate-smart agriculture solutions for farmers and ranchers.

Brownfield recently spoke with Woods at the Illinois State Fair.

AUDIO: Dr. Michael Woods-AISWCD