USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has announced funding to help protect the Great Lakes as part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). NRCS will provide financial and technical resources to eligible landowners and farmers for conservation work in priority watersheds. Priority watersheds are those with the most vulnerability and greatest need for protection of water quality and restoration of wildlife habitat.

The deadlines for the New York Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) pre-proposals and full proposals have been extended since the original announcement. Pre-proposals are now due in the New York NRCS State Office by June 1, 2012.

A class trip to a farm proved to be an exciting and educational day for students from the Bugbee Children’s Center in Oneonta when they visited the Cooperstown Holstein Corporation for a “Day On the Farm”. The trip was set up to expose children to the farming experience that some might not ever have the opportunity to try.

Acting State Conservationist Bruce Hopkins announced the launch of a new National Water Quality Initiative committed to improving three impaired watersheds in Chautauqua County, New York. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service will manage the initiative by making funds available to farmers and forest landowners in these selected watersheds.