United States Department of Agriculture
Natural Resources Conservation Service		 Idaho Go to Accessibility Information
Skip to Page Content

Idaho Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) - 2013

Cattle walking along a hillside

The Conservation Stewardship Program pays participants for conservation performance.  The program encourages agricultural and forestry producers to address resource concerns by improving and maintaining existing conservation activities and undertaking additional conservation activities.

CSP is available to all producers regardless of operation size or crop produced.  Eligible lands include cropland, hayland, pastureland, rangeland, nonindustrial private forest lands, and agricultural land under the jurisdiction of an Indian tribe.  Participation in the program is voluntary.

CSP applications are accepted on a continuous basis with announced cut-off dates for ranking and funding.  At this time, no date has been announced for the 2013 ranking period.

Use the self-screening checklist to see if CSP is the right program for you.

The documents on this page require Adobe Acrobat.

Download and fill out the Conservation Stewardship Self-Screening Checklist (PDF; 115 KB) 


CSP offers participants two possible types of payments:
  1. Annual Payment:
    The participant will receive an annual payment for installing and adopting additional activities, and improving, maintaining and managing existing activities.  Activities may include conservation practices and/or enhancements.
  1. Supplemental Payment:
     The participant may earn a supplemental payment for the adoption of resource-conserving crop rotations.

Documents:

Conservation Measurement Tool (CMT) Scoring Process 

NRCS will use the CMT to evaluate CSP applications through a point-based system to estimate environmental benefits. The CMT evaluates existing and proposed new activities to calculate conservation performance points which will be used for ranking and payment purposes.


Conservation Measurement Tool (CMT) Inventory Questions

The documents below are copies of the resource inventory questions, grouped by land use.  You can download and review the questions, and begin drafting responses to start resource inventory process before you complete the CMT in your local NRCS office:


Operation Baseline Data (OBD) Questions

The documents below are copies of the Operation Baseline Data questions, grouped by land use.  You can download and review the questions, and begin drafting responses to start the process before you meet with NRCS staff:

CSP and the National Organic Program

The 2008 Farm Bill recognized the growing interest and support of organic agriculture across the country and required the development of a transparent means by which producers may initiate organic certification while participating in a CSP contract. "The Conservation Stewardship Program's Contribution to Organic Transitioning - The Organic Crosswalk", provides an explanation of how CSP enhancements can be used to assist producers in meeting individual National Organic Program (NOP) rules while going through the transitioning period.

 
To see the geographic area map:  Conservation Stewardship Program Geographic Areas

2013 CSP - Conservation Stewardship Program - Priority Resource Concerns and Ranking Pools
Geographic Areas Priority Resource Concerns
Ranking Pools Division Soil Erosion Water Quality Animals Soil Quality Plants Air Quality
Agricultural Land - South (below the Idaho County Southern Boundary) Divisions 3, 4, 5 and 6 X X X X X  
Agricultural Land - North (above the Idaho County Southern Boundary) Divisions 1 and 2 X X X X X  
Nonindustrial Private Forest Land All Divisions   X X   X X


Additional Information:
Archives:

Idaho CSP Contact:

Rob Fredericksen, CSP Program Leader
Phone:  (208) 685-6993
E-mail: Rob.Fredericksen@id.usda.gov

This page will be updated as soon as information becomes available.  Please check back often.

< Back to Programs

Last Modified: 05/01/2013