It worked well for me here in VA. Basically you work with NRCS biologists and others to develop a plan. There are certain practices that NRCS will pay a certain amount for. Once you agree on a plan, you execute it, knowing what the NRCS payment will be. You put up the money up front. You can do work yourself or hire contractors. After the work is complete, NRCS comes out to inspect to make sure it was done to there standards (you get a copy of the standards up front). They then pay you for completing that work.
We had 3 practices that qualified for reimbursement with our plan, herbicide application, firebreak installation, and controlled burns. For herbicide application NRCS pays on a per acre basis. This was to spray a clear-cut to keep stumps from regenerating. We hired a crew to come in and spry for us. They work on NRCS projects and knew the standards well. After they sprayed, we waited to give the herbicide time to work and then NRCS came in and inspected to ensure we got a sufficient kill. They then paid us. The cost we paid the contractor exceeded what NRCS paid so we had to cover the difference.
Firebreaks were paid for on a per-foot basis. Again, we hired a contractor with a dozer at an hourly rate with and estimate of how many hours it would take him to complete the breaks. After he completed the firebreaks, NRCS came in and used a GPS and drove all the breaks with an ATV. They then paid us on a per linear foot basis. It turned out we got paid more for the breaks than we had to pay the contractor plus he had hours left on his estimate after he finished the breaks. Since his dozer was on site and we did not have to pay additional transport, we had him use those extra hours to clear and destump some wildlife openings where we will plant clover and fruit trees. So, we got that added benefit plus we were able to pocket the difference between what NRCS paid and what the contractor charged.
Finally we conducted controlled burns. We hired a burn coordinator and crew and another owner and I added our labor to his crew. He brought a dozer out "just in case" things got out of control. We found there were a few more small breaks we needed so he did that. He also kept the dozer on site for a week after the burn again "just in case". During that time, he let me operate it. He charged me an unoperated rate which was less than he charged per hour to operate it. That let me get a few other small wildlife openings and such cleared. The burn itself was both for our clear-cuts and for our thinned pines. We did lose some pines when the fire got a bit hot in places, but it really did a great job for wildlife. The controlled burn coordinator suggested that we take the controlled burner class offered by VDOF so that in the future we could burn ourselves. He said we could rent his dozer at an unoperated rate "just in case" for those burns. That would let us pocket most of the controlled burn money. I haven't taken the class yet but am considering it. Again, after we conducted the burn, NRCS came out and inspected it and then reimbursed us. They then paid us on a per acre basis. I used ArcGIS to provide them maps with all the acreages and liner footage estimates.
We had zero issues with NRCS being intrusive or telling us what to do. They acted in an advisory capacity and told us what they would pay for and how much. We then made the decision what to do. They were very supportive of all of our efforts. We basically got a lot of the cost covered for stuff that we would have eventually done ourselves when we could afford it.
I have nothing bad to say about EQIP. Last year they guided us toward a new program that pays for particular practices. You basically make a plan and put it into their software model and it squirts out a payment. It was described to us that EQIP is aimed at getting a new property up to snuff and then this new program with CSP practices is aimed at supporting you for using certain practices in an on going way. We could not make the numbers for this new program work for us. Because of the growth state of our pines, we covered about half the property with our EQIP plan. In a couple years the pines on the other half will be old enough to thin. We are looking to use the EQIP program again for that other half.
The new program with CSP practices was fairly new and changing. We will probably look at it again after we use the EQIP on the other side.
Thanks,
Jack
