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The Department of Energy promised this tribal nation a $32 million solar grant. It’s nearly impossible to access.

The Department of Energy gave the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation what seemed like very good news earlier this year: It had won a $ 32 million grant for a novel solar energy project in Washington state. Built over a series of old irrigation canals, the proposed solar panels would generate electricity for tribal members without removing farm acreage from cultivation. The location would preserve the kinds of culturally sensitive land that have prompted concerns about other renewables projects.

Months after announcing the grant, the same department is making it nearly impossible for the tribal nation to access the money.

“It is because literally the feds cannot get out of their own way,” said Ray Wiseman, general manager of Yakama Power, the tribally owned utility.

The bureaucratic whiplash stems from the fact that while one part …

Forests managed by Indigenous nations face a $100 million funding gap

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Forests managed by Indigenous nations are severely underfunded. To reach per-acre parity with forests managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, the federal government would need to increase funding by nearly $ 96 million every year. That’s according to a new report from the Intertribal Timber Council, a nonprofit consortium consisting primarily of tribes and Alaska Native Corporations.

In 2019, the base year for the study, tribal forests represented nearly 19 million acres in the United States, including approximately 10.2 million acres of commercial forests and woodlands. A total of 345 tribal forests are managed across the nation, with 316 of those forests being held in federal trust.

“It seems like a fairly straightforward answer that when we look at the disparity in funding between other federal agencies and tribes, that [Congress] would just increase …

USDA Announces $300 Million in Awards to Support Access to Land, Capital, and Markets for Beginning and Undeserved Framers

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This month, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) announced more than $ 300 million in awards to 50 projects focused on increasing underserved farmers and ranchers’ access to land, markets, and capital. These projects were awarded under the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access (Increasing Land Access) Program (LCM). This program funds cooperative agreements or grants for projects that help move underserved producers from surviving to thriving. The awardees – which include many National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) members – proposed national, regional, and local projects that cover 40 states and territories including Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.

Background

Land access is one of the biggest challenges for young and beginning farmers all across the country – whether small-scale dairy farmers in New England, livestock and grain …

$25 million available for on-farm conservation innovation grants

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On July 25, 2022, the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced the availability of $ 25 million in funding to advance the adoption and evaluation of innovative conservation practices on agricultural lands. The funding is for on-farm trials, a subprogram of the Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) program. CIGs are designed to support collaboration between NRCS and partners to implement on-the-ground conservation activities and evaluate their impacts. Participating farmers and ranchers receive payments to offset the risk and investments for testing out new conservation approaches.

The deadline to apply for On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials is September 22, 2022.

CIG Basics

Authorized under the 2018 Farm Bill, the CIG program supports science-based solutions that benefit both farmers and the environment. As a subprogram of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), CIG projects are intended as a stepping-stone …

Comment: NSAC Praises USDA Announcement of More Than 3.1 Million Acres Offered Through CRP Grassland Signups

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Laura Zaks

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

lzaks@sustainableagriculture.net

Tel. 347.563.6408

Comment: NSAC Praises USDA Announcement of More Than 3.1 Million Acres Offered Through CRP Grassland Signups

Washington, DC, July 15, 2022 – In response to this week’s announcement that the Farm Service Agency (FSA) is accepting offers for more than 3.1 million acres from agricultural producers and private landowners through this year’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Grassland Signup, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) issued the following comment, attributable to Jesse Womack, NSAC Policy Specialist.

“The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) applauds the Farm Service Agency (FSA) for its historic announcement that they are accepting offers for more than 3.1 million acres from agricultural producers and private landowners through this year’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Grassland Signup. This far exceeds the current minimum required enrollment of 2

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California offers $100 million for tribes to buy back their land. It won’t go far.

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When he was 10 years old, Terry Supahan’s mom bought him a new bike. Supahan, a member of the Karuk Tribe in Northern California, had only ridden second hand bikes before. A hundred years earlier, the state of California had stolen millions of acres of land from his tribe and more than a hundred others. In 1968, the state sent checks to individual Indigenous people to pay them back. Supahan’s mom used the money she received — about $ 100 he recalls — to buy the bike, a moment that Supahan remembers fondly, but laughs at now. How could a bicycle compare to millions of acres of stolen land?

The check was part of a $ 29 million land settlement for roughly 65 million acres of land — two-thirds of the entire state — stolen from Indigenous people. That works …