ANNAPOLIS, MD, July 13, 2009 – Through a partnership with the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Pinchot Institute for Conservation announces the availability of an additional $25,000 for agricultural operators to implement conservation practices through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program’s (EQIP) Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative. These funds are immediately available to operators in priority watersheds, including the Nanticoke, who meet application requirements for EQIP funding. Operators should contact their local NRCS office to learn more about the program and apply for funding.

The goal of the program is to prepare participating operators to engage in emerging ecosystem market opportunities, including nutrient trading and forest conservation. Ecosystem markets provide producers with the opportunity to diversify their income and engage in conservation activities funded by sources other than incentive programs such as EQIP.

Ecosystem services – sequestration of carbon in growing trees, water filtration by forests, and other benefits provided by natural systems – have traditionally been provided to society for free by farmers and other private landowners. Now efforts are underway to develop markets to pay landowners and operators for the services their land provides. In Maryland, a new market for nutrients will pay operators to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous runoff from their fields.

In order to participate in Maryland’s nutrient market and other ecosystem service markets, operators must meet specific eligibility criteria. The Pinchot Institute – NRCS Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative will assist operators in meeting these criteria. Cost share funds through the partnership are targeted to practices that will help operators reach market eligibility thresholds. In addition, the Pinchot Institute, through its Bay Bank program, will help participants engage in markets through tools and services that will assist them in developing market credits and find buyers.

“Maryland NRCS is excited about the new opportunities this partnership with the Pinchot Institute and Bay Bank presents,” stated Jon Hall, Maryland’s State Conservationist. “Ecosystem markets are an emerging opportunity for agriculture and this partnership, along with the other tools offered by Bay Bank, will help operators efficiently engage in markets.”