Funding opportunity for farmers through local soil health program
By PRISCILLA WAGGONER Courier reporter
ALAMOSA — The Mosca-Hooper Conservation District is accepting applications for producers interested in participating in a grant opportunity with the Colorado Saving Tomorrow’s Agricultural Resources (STAR) Program.
STAR, created by conservation districts for conservation districts, is a practice- based rating system that assigns points for cropping, tillage, nutrient application and other best management practices based upon a 10-minute form that producers fill out about each field. As a result, the farmer or rancher
receives a STAR rating from 1-5 stars that helps them understand how well they are doing in promoting soil health.
At its core, the purpose of STAR is to create a new way for conservation districts to interact with landowners about the health of their soil, structuring and guiding those conversations with common, mutually understood language around the crucial five soil health principles.
Toward that goal, the Mosca-Hooper Conservation District applied for and received grant funding to provide 5-7 producers with technical assistance, guidance in filling out a STAR Field Form, and assistance collecting a soil sample for a free soil health test.
To those producers who apply and are selected, Mosca-Hooper Conservation District will distribute incentive payments of up to $10,000 to each participating producer for implementing soil health practices, matched with an equal investment from the producer themselves. The investment the farmer makes in labor, materials, land use value and irrigation can all serve as in-kind match to cover the equal investment requirement.
There is also $25,000 in grant funding avail- able for the purchase of equipment related to soil health, including but not limited to conservation tillage, seed drills and compost extractors.
Patrick O’Neill, Supervisor with Mosca-Hooper Conservation District, is the contact person for the grant opportunity and one of the most knowledgeable and strongest advocates for soil health in the San Luis Valley, encourages anyone who is interested to apply.
According to O’Neill, the health of the soil is directly related to the capacity to be thrifty with water usage. “Healthy soil will support plants even in stressful situations, like the drought we’re experiencing,” he says. “And because of the decree related to the aquifer, we’re on a very tight timeline to get [our agricultural practices] right and to do it quickly. The more everyone understands about soil health, the better. This grant is an opportunity to begin to create a net- work where we share successes or failures relative to what is working and what is not.”
The timeline for the grant application is relatively short, with a dead- line of January 15. The Mosca-Hooper Conservation District will finalize selection for the program by late January 2022.
Those who are interested in participating in the program or learning more of the details should contact Patrick O’Neill at patrick@soilhealthservices.com or by calling Patrick directly at (719) 588-0836.
Funding for this grant opportunity was made possible by passage of the Soil Health Program, legislation sponsored by Colorado State Senator Cleave Simpson and passed by the Colorado legislature earlier this year. The program is ad- ministered through the Colorado Department of Agriculture.