Project Search
Since its inception in 2004, CIG has funded hundreds of projects, boosting natural resource conservation while helping producers improve the health of their operations for the future. Use this tool to search for CIG projects based on any of the criteria listed below.
CIG projects from 2004-2009 may be missing information in the following categories: Resource Concern (specific), Conservation Practice, Production/Use.
Showing 1531 - 1540 of 1776 projects
The Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands
|
ME
|
2006
The Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands proposes to assist family forest landowners in taking advantage of an emerging greenhouse gas emissions market by assembling carbon offset credits associated with ecologically sound forest management on private lands and selling the credits to investors. This project will develop a credible model forest carbon project using family forest properties representing a diversity of parcel sizes and tree species composition. This innovative work will develop the technical tools necessary to bring income to landowners for providing valuable carbon sequestration ecosystem services. Forest management will meet international standards for environmental, economic, and social sustainability under the Forest Stewardship Council certification program. Co-benefits to the carbon offset program will also include protection of soil and water quality. The project will also propose to develop a credible set of practices that will be used as an accounting tool to establish the market value for such practices. Model easements will be developed to create the legal structure needed to maintain the implementation of practices that create carbon benefits and protect water and soil quality. A monitoring program will be developed to ensure the terms of the easements are being followed. The project will be evaluated as a case study for a program to be expanded in a statewide or regional context. Analyses will be conducted to evaluate the compatibility of the program with existing state forest policies, including tax incentive and cost-share programs. In addition, we will evaluate the economic costs and benefits to landowners who provide additional carbon sequestration within this pilot framework.
Chesapeake Natives, Inc
|
MD
|
2006
Chesapeake Natives, Inc. will develop native seed as an alternative crop for soil conservation in Maryland. In the growing season of 2006, wild parent populations of species are being located and certified (for source-identification of seed lots) by the Maryland Department of Agriculture. Seed will be wild-collected in the fall of 2006. All production demonstration plots will be located on EQIP eligible farms in Maryland: 3 on the Delmarva Peninsula, 3 on the Coastal Plain west of the Bay, and 3 in the Piedmont. Production plots will be set up with signs and weed block fabric in the winter 2006/2007. Each production plot will accommodate the demonstration of 4 species and the effects of various fertility and weed control approaches. Germination protocol and seedling production will also occur in the winter 2006/2007. Production plots will be planted in the spring of 2007. In the growing seasons of 2007 and 2008, we will be meeting with farmers repeatedly to work on fertilization, weed control and harvest. In the winter 2007/2008, we will be cleaning the first harvest, and continuing germination protocol work (critical to having seed lots tested for sale in the future). In the growing season 2008, we will continue the fertility/weed control/harvest activities.
In the winter 2008/2009, seed will be cleaned and stored, and seed production manuals and presentations will be prepared. In 2009, we will use the January-to-June period covered by this grant to establish soil stabilization demonstration plots that illustrate the effective use of the native seed mix. During this period the soil stabilization team (see collaborators) will meet approximately three times a year.
In the winter 2008/2009, seed will be cleaned and stored, and seed production manuals and presentations will be prepared. In 2009, we will use the January-to-June period covered by this grant to establish soil stabilization demonstration plots that illustrate the effective use of the native seed mix. During this period the soil stabilization team (see collaborators) will meet approximately three times a year.
Colorado State University/ Agricultural Experimental Station
|
CO
|
2006
The purpose of this award is for the grantee to create a comprehensive best management practices plan for reduction of ammonia emissions for cattle producers. Colorado State University will address a serious gap between researchers and agricultural producers when it comes to getting experimental results into practice. Some information is available in an accessible format, but little to none is available about ammonia, a gas that is getting major attention as of late due to its detrimental health and environmental effects. This project will create a comprehensive best management practices (BMP) plan for reduction of ammonia emissions for cattle producers. The plan will include ammonia reduction practices for every aspect of the operation including nutrition, barn and pen mitigation, waste management and processing, and land application. The is project will entail a comprehensive review of current literature will be conducted to evaluate current ammonia BMPs, testing of the most promising BMPs on-farm to evaluate their relative effectiveness, and a detailed survey of cattle producers to monitor current and future ammonia BMPs, with emphasis on feasibility, constraints, and cost leading to the compilation of an ammonia handbook highlighting BMPs with highest efficacy and lowest cost.
The Regents of the University of California
|
CA
|
2006
The University of California will manage codling moth populations in walnuts by pheromone mating disruption using aerosol puffers and validate pheromone application technology required for control of codling moth with an emphasis on "area-wide" control over multiple years. Aerosol puffers will be used to treat up to 2 acres each, and only have to be applied once per season, supplemented with an insecticide in the first year. In subsequent years supplemental sprays will be decreased or eliminated based on monitoring traps and canopy counts. This project will assist with and demonstrate the use of monitoring for CM damage for growers who are interested in implementation of pheromone mating disruption.
Marin Resource Conservation District
|
CA
|
2006
The project will demonstrate improvement in the effectiveness of on-farm composting for low pathogen dairy bedding production through co-composting with bulking agents derived from the local waste stream. The Marin Resource Conservation District will address the pressing need for an alternative to sand as a bedding material for Marin dairies. This pilot project will provide livestock producers and, equestrian facilities with a tool to help meet Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) standards and establish a much needed community composting facility and green waste drop off site to address the need for environmentally sound fire fuel and landscape debris disposition in West Marin.
Palmer Soil & Water Conservation District
|
AL
|
2006
Conservation tillage and/or crop rotation strategies have never been thoroughly evaluated or implemented to any degree in Southcentral Alaska. The project will utilize various implements and pieces of machinery that have not been nor are currently available in Alaska. Alaska’s growing season is very different from those in the lower 48 states, for which the current tillage, crop rotation, and residue practice guidelines are written. This project will innovate Alaskan-specific practice guidelines directly in collaboration with the agricultural producers who so desperately require them.
Meagher County Conservation District
|
MT
|
2006
Meagher County Conservation District will investigate the hydrology of the Upper Smith River Watershed and identify irrigation and droughts influence on the stream flow of the Smith River, so that informed decisions and plans of action can be made. Surface and ground water flowing in and out of the Smith River Watershed will be measured and tracked utilizing temperature as a natural tracer. Utilizing temperature, in conjunction with water level gradients, to determine the flow pattern and interaction between the ground water and surface water systems is a new and innovative technique that would allow hydrologic systems to be investigated at a greatly reduced cost to the present techniques in use.
West Virginia University
|
WV
|
2006
The beneficial attributes of bio-control agents like goats and sheep have not been well understood in West Virginia. West Virginia University proposes a three-year project to evaluate the usefulness of goat and sheep as bio-control agents to implement prescribed grazing protocols for the utilization and management of invasive plant species. An educational workshop will be included as a part of this project to teach farmers methods to incorporate sheep and goats into a multi-species grazing system. We will then facilitate and demonstrate a cost share program with 30 selected farmers for a prescribed grazing system to improve brush management in the Potomac Valley Soil Conservation district. An effective marketing pool for the sale of the goat and sheep produce will be developed to orient future distribution patterns. Finally, an economic analysis will be carried out to determine the economic differences between bio-control and traditional chemical and mechanical control methods.
Watershed Agriculture Council
|
NY
|
2006
Animal waste is one of the main management challenges for dairy farms of all sizes. The identification of increasingly comprehensive manure management systems may result in benefits for agricultural producers and their advisors alike. One such manure management system in limited use is a bedded pack. A bedded pack utilizes a dry bedding material such as straw, hay or wood shavings creating an area for the feeding, watering and storage of livestock and their waste materials. Reports on farms using bedded packs have not focused on the actual impact on the farmer once this management system is adopted. In this project a comprehensive investigation of the producer-based experience of managing a bedded pack system will be performed. The experiences of those advising producers will be evaluated to determine if this system provides a better conservation alternative to more traditional, capital-intensive projects. The technical and operational outcomes will be disseminated to relevant audiences through field demonstrations of the system, presentations on project methodology and published results of the evaluation.
Compost Bedded Pack Barn - An Environmentally Friendly Combination of Waste Storage & Animal Housing
Robert Boldt/ We Gotta Farm
|
NY
|
2006
The purpose of this award is for the grantee to construct two compost bedded pack barns, an environmentally friendly combination of waste storage and animal housing for use by dairy cows. The compost bedded pack system seeks to exploit the benefits of storage, nutrient retention, application timing while minimizing or eliminating odor, spills, etc. This system will eliminate liquid manure storage, its costs and hazards. Seventy-five to eighty percent of daily manure production is captures on the pack itself. Therefore housing and manure storage are one unit. Since the bedded pack is part and parcel of the barn it is roofed. The texture of the compost when it is spread is much like damp potting soil. This is stable product that will have no runoff as would liquid.