NRCS New Jersey Conservation Planning and Data Processing | USDA NRCS NJ CPLAN NOFO0001274

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA NRCS NJ CPLAN NOFO0001274

The NRCS New Jersey Conservation Planning and Data Processing opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number: USDA NRCS NJ CPLAN NOFO0001274) is a discretionary federal funding competition run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). It will be awarded as a cooperative agreement under CFDA 10.902 and is aimed at expanding on-the-ground conservation planning capacity and strengthening the administrative and data processing support needed to deliver USDA conservation programs across multiple New Jersey service areas.

The core purpose is to fund a shared Conservationist Planner position (or equivalent staffing arrangement) that can provide technical assistance out of four NRCS Service Centers: Hackettstown, Frenchtown, Columbus, and Woodstown. The work is intended to support a broad set of counties tied to each service center. Hackettstown covers Bergen, Passaic, Sussex, Morris, Essex, Warren, and Hudson counties; Frenchtown covers Hunterdon and Somerset counties; Columbus covers Burlington, Ocean, and Camden counties; and Woodstown covers Gloucester and Salem counties. In practical terms, the grant is designed to increase NRCS delivery capacity by placing or supporting staff who can work alongside NRCS to move conservation projects from planning to implementation while keeping program records current and accurate.

Funded activities focus on four main service areas. First, the planner will provide conservation planning assistance associated with the Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA) program and two major Farm Bill financial assistance programs: the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). This typically involves working with producers and landowners on conservation plans, resource assessments, practice selection, and the documentation needed to meet program requirements. Second, the position will help NRCS implement Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) climate-smart practices, reflecting the agency focus on practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, build soil health, improve nutrient management, and enhance climate resilience. Third, the role includes conservation practice implementation support and certification, meaning the planner helps ensure conservation practices are installed according to standards and can be verified as complete. Fourth, the opportunity explicitly includes Farm Bill administrative services, with an emphasis on data processing and data entry for conservation projects, which is critical for tracking applications, contracts, practice scheduling, certification records, and reporting.

Eligibility is limited to governmental entities, specifically state governments, county governments, city or township governments, and special district governments. The activity areas align with agriculture, environment, and natural resources, and the overall structure suggests NRCS is looking for partners that can directly support service center operations and collaborate closely with federal staff under a cooperative agreement framework.

The funding details indicate an award ceiling of $2,500,000, with NRCS expecting to make up to three awards. The notice was created on April 11, 2023, with an original closing date shown as June 11, 2023, while the narrative specifies that applications must be submitted through Grants.gov by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on June 10, 2023. Applicants are required to submit via Grants.gov, and any technical issues with the Grants.gov platform must be directed to Grants.gov Applicant Support (1-800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov), since NRCS staff will not troubleshoot Grants.gov account problems. For questions about the notice itself, applicants are directed to the federal awarding agency contact listed in section G of the full NFO, with the agency noting that questions should be limited to clarifications about the posted requirements (such as dates, page references, or discrepancies) rather than requests for feedback on eligibility edge cases or the competitiveness of a specific proposal.

NRCS indicated an anticipated timeline in which selections would be made by June 30, 2023, and awards would be executed by September 30, 2023, with the standard caveat that these dates are estimates and could change. Overall, this opportunity is best understood as capacity funding: NRCS is paying to expand planning, implementation oversight, and the data management backbone needed to deliver conservation assistance efficiently across multiple New Jersey counties, with an added emphasis on scaling climate-smart conservation practices tied to IRA priorities.

• The Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service in the agriculture, environment, natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NRCS New Jersey Conservation Planning and Data Processing" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.902.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 11, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 11, 2023 Applications must be received by 1159 pm Eastern Time.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 3 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments.

Apply for USDA NRCS NJ CPLAN NOFO0001274

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