Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)

Our Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) helps you build on your existing conservation efforts while strengthening your operation. Whether you are looking to improve grazing conditions, increase crop yields, or develop wildlife habitat, we can custom design a CSP plan to help you meet those goals. We can help you schedule timely planting of cover crops, develop a grazing plan that will improve your forage base, implement no-till to reduce erosion or manage forested areas in a way that benefits wildlife habitat. If you are already taking steps to improve the condition of the land, chances are CSP can help you find new ways to meet your goals.

Applicant must meet all three eligibility criteria; producer, land, and stewardship eligibility. Applicant: Individuals, entities, and Indian Tribes operating agricultural or private non-industrial private forest land. Prior to submitting an application the applicant must be the operator in the Farm Services Agency farm records management system for the agricultural operation being offered for the program. The applicant must have effective control of the lands for the life of the contract, be compliant with the highly erodible land & wetland conservation provisions, and be compliant with payment eligibility provisions, including the adjusted gross income provision. Land: The CSP contract must include all eligible and ineligible lands on an agricultural operation that the applicant has effective control for the life of the CSP contract, which is 5 years. Eligible lands consist of tribal or private cropland, pastureland, rangeland, forestlands, associated agricultural lands, and farmstead. Stewardship Threshold: The stewardship threshold means the level of management required to conserve and improve the quality and condition of a natural resource. Each stewardship threshold is evaluated using the Conservation Activity Evaluation Tool, which assesses the applicant’s conservation management decisions for each resource concern on each land use in their operation. The applicant must meet or exceed the stewardship threshold on all land uses. Each land use must address at least two resource concerns at time of application and address at least one additional resource concern by the end of the conservation stewardship contract on each land use.

Conservation practices often double as adaptation to climate change as they aim to build landscapes that are more resilient to climate change.