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 781 - 790 of 1760 projects
Rocky Mountain Front Weed Roundtable
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MT
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2012
The project’s goal is to change weed management from less effective treatment of established weed patches to cost-effective, integrated weed management using all appropriate techniques. This will be carried out while maintaining or enhancing the ecological and economic health of the Rocky Mountain Front. This project will differ from traditional approaches by focusing on strategies that will maintain agricultural economic values by preventing expansion of weed populations, based on coordinated, strategic focus on the set of highest priority actions with positive economic returns. The project will employ integrated pest management (e.g., prevention, locally successful biological controls, spraying and pulling) to focus on the priority actions necessary to achieve broad-scale success across watersheds and provide a framework for long-term sustainability.
Sotoyome Resource Conservation District
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CA
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2012
This project proposes to establish crediting rates using the Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT) and other accepted credit calculation methods (if not currently available in NTT) and integrate other credit calculators used into NTT where possible and appropriate. The project will also define administrative, regulatory and eligibility requirements of credit sellers and establish and refine infrastructure for certification and monitoring for traded credits. It will also assess future supply and demand for the Laguna water quality credit trading market and verify and track certified nutrient load reductions using project-established protocols and a simple, on-line marketplace registry developed for and maintained by the Sotoyome Resource Conservation District. These actions will optimize ease of market participation for sellers and future buyers.
Sustainable Conservation
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CA
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2012
Sustainable Conservation has an organizational goal to reduce nitrate contamination of groundwater from dairy lagoon water in California. The purpose of the proposed CIG project is to demonstrate a simple, low-tech and effective biological wastewater treatment system on a commercial dairy. This demonstration will take place in a region with limited available cropland, highly permeable soils, and a shallow groundwater table. Project objectives include:
• Build a biological wastewater treatment system on a commercial dairy;
• Measure environmental benefits and economic costs of this biological wastewater treatment system; and
• Conduct education and outreach to encourage technology transfer to additional California dairies.
• Build a biological wastewater treatment system on a commercial dairy;
• Measure environmental benefits and economic costs of this biological wastewater treatment system; and
• Conduct education and outreach to encourage technology transfer to additional California dairies.
The Curators of the University of Missouri
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MO
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2012
This project will demonstrate the environmental benefits of adopting a production system focused on soil health and conservation practices. The project aims to measure in detail reductions in soil erosion, nitrogen, phosphorous, and herbicide losses and some measure of pesticide losses to surface water. It also aims to enhance wildlife richness and diversity by demonstrating increased richness and diversity of wildlife as a result of field edge buffers and Cover Crops. It also aims to demonstrate the economic benefits of adopting a production system of soil health and conservation practices with the goals of exhibiting increased productivity, decreasing input costs and increasing farm profitability. Finally, the 9 project will develop and implement a user friendly tool to recommend best management for cover crop selection, nitrogen application and economic return.
The Curators of the University of Missouri
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MO
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2012
This project will advance phosphorous management in the U.S. by developing and demonstrating procedures that ensure Phosphorous Indices are appropriately tested in accordance with the 2012 NRCS 590 Standard by meeting the following objectives: Identifying the most effective strategies for using the Agricultural Policy Environmental Extender, an existing fate-and-transport model, to evaluate Phosphorous Indices using data from existing watershed and large-plot studies; Evaluating and improve current Phosphorous Index formulations in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska; evaluate and compare potential P Index formulations for use as a regional P Index in the humid regions of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska; Engaging farmers, technical service providers, stakeholder groups, state and regional regulators and state NRCS staff to facilitate acceptance of recommendations in each state, facilitate more consistency across state borders, and demonstrate the utility of validated, calibrated P-indices for reducing P loss and protecting water quality; and Collaborating with similar projects in Chesapeake Bay, the South, and the national overarching CIG project to facilitate application of results to humid regions of the U.S.
The Nature Conservancy
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IL
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2012
This project will provide landowner outreach and education to increase understanding and stimulate enrollment in innovative conservation practices and programs and implement an adaptive nutrient management program and quantify its environmental performance. The project will also develop and refine replicable and transferable methods for producing watershed maps of tile-drained areas and apply watershed tile maps to guide locations for strategic outreach, wetland placement, and monitoring. It will also construct wetlands and quantify their environmental performance. Additionally, the project will quantify the environmental performance of a nutrient management program that bundles in-field and off-field practices for increased nutrient use efficiency and reduced nutrient export and develop and evaluate a watershed-scale management program for sustainable nutrient reduction that integrates ecosystem services (i.e., payment for services) with the nutrient management program developed during this project, previous research, existing watershed plans and current NRCS conservation programs.
Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Inc
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MD
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2012
This project proposes to harmonize state and local agency forest mitigation and trading requirements to ease adoption by agricultural producers, aggregators and credit buyers like developers. The project will test and refine market infrastructure, so it is immediately useful for landowners, public programs and credit buyers. It will also complete 8-10 forest-based practice pilot projects with Environmental Quality Incentives Program-eligible producers in southern Maryland to test forest protocols and market infrastructure. The project will also assist local governments in meeting the nutrient and sediment goals in their Watershed Implementation Plans by simplifying the implementation of forest based offsets and credits and easing their workload by establishing the Chesapeake Forests Offset Bank.
American Farmland Trust
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IL
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2012
This project proposes to develop, test and refine the first-ever quantification protocol for crediting precision agriculture variable rate technology practices in water quality credit trading programs. The project will use data from universities, John Deere and Trimble to compare crop uptake budgets with the amount of nutrients applied and use modeling at the farm-field level and some edge-of-field monitors to account for the fate of excess nutrients. The resulting quantification protocol will be tested and refined with farmers during one-and-one-half growing seasons and also vetted with state permitting agencies in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.
American Society of Agronomy
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WI
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2012
The project goal is to evaluate 36 projects, resulting in recommendations and practice standards to be incorporated in NRCS policy.
Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
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WI
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2012
This project proposes to demonstrate the ability of a process-based Phosphorous Index formulation to assess management effects on runoff phosphorous losses from fields under frozen soil conditions. The project will test and refine the method used in a process-based Phosphorous Index to determine the effect of field management practices on frozen soil runoff volume and adapt the refined frozen soil runoff risk assessment method (within the process-based Phosphorous Index) to identify field conditions and management practices capable of minimizing runoff when animal manure is applied to frozen soils. This project will promote NRCS Conservation Practice Standard Code 799 Monitoring and Evaluation by demonstrating the prototype flow measurement gage on farm fields under winter conditions observed in Dane County, Wisconsin. It will also improve the functionality of the prototype flow gage by adding a user-friendly interface that will allow landowners to easily access gage data.