Technical Service Provider Training to Improve Services for Family Forest Landowners

Technical Service Provider Training to Improve Services for Family Forest Landowners

Summary

In 2013, Northwest Natural Resource Group (NNRG) focused efforts on assessing forestry and natural resource professionals’ interest in becoming Technical Service Providers (TSP) for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and began curriculum development for the TSP training workshops. This preparation sought to understand barriers to becoming TSPs and document strategies for implementing successful EQIP projects.

NNRG also conducted outreach to landowners about the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) and encouraged forest owners to submit applications for conservation practices. Additionally, NNRG conducted interviews with forest owners who implemented EQIP projects in past years to understand barriers and opportunities to working with TSPs. Through NNRG’s Northwest Certified Forestry (NCF) program, NNRG also assisted landowners in conducting commercial thinning operations to improve forest health, wood quality and generate income for forest owners and natural resource contractors.

Objectives/Performance Targets

NNRG has ascertained that there is currently interest in the TSP program from 5-10 forest professionals who work across Washington and western Oregon. The TSP training program workshops will be targeted to attract these individuals as well as early professionals, other contractors that could potentially service EQIP projects, public agency staff, and the Oregon and Washington natural resource professional community. These interviews and inquires with potential TSPs were valuable for understanding the perceived barriers to becoming NRCS TSPs and concerns about efficiently developing EQIP-funded projects that meet program requirements. NNRG has begun to incorporate this information into the TSP curriculum.

Additionally, NNRG will continue efforts to inform forest owners about EQIP opportunities in an effort to assist in conservation objectives and to grow the potential pool of clients for forestry professionals who become TSPs.

Accomplishments/Milestones

NNRG conducted informational interviews with current TSPs and interested natural resource professionals regarding EQIP projects and TSP registration process. Feedback from these conversations indicated a number of perceived barriers to the Technical Service Provider role, which NNRG has sought to address in curriculum development. Key concerns include:

1. The time requirements to complete the TSP training, registration and multiple interims waiting for NRCS review and approval of TSP applicants. Some TSPs and potential TSPs expressed frustration in the time required to register, complete module trainings and receive NRCS feedback on applications (which can take up to 3 months) and questioned whether the upfront investment was commensurate with the long-term value to them or their clients. Potential TSPs that saw opportunity in EQIP indicated they would be more likely to apply to become TSPs if NNRG developed an efficient training in one discrete period of time. NNRG is in communication with the Washington State NRCS TSP Coordinators about streamlining the approval process during the upcoming trainings.

2. Another concern of potential and current TSPs relates to their understanding of the NRCS’s Priority Resource Concerns and annually, or semi-annually, changing programmatic funding allocations. Potential TSPs will need to understand what environmental resource concerns are priorities to the NRCS and keep apprised of annual changes. This effort is needed in order to assure that landowners applying for EQIP rank competitively for funding. NNRG’s training will outline this component of EQIP and will encourage TSPs to participate in their NRCS Local Working Groups in order to ensure that forestry interests are represented in conservation project funding.

3. Other TSPs and potential TSPs have indicated a concern about the efficiency of EQIP cost share projects and their ability to cover project-related business costs. These concerns range from the added complexity of tracking EQIP project steps, lack of mechanisms for periodically updating TSPs on programmatic changes, and project tools (such as Job Sheets) that have lost utility for their intended use in the field in order to meet reporting requirements elsewhere within the agency. In learning of these concerns, NNRG has started to work with NRCS staff to recommend and develop improved documentation methods and reporting systems. NNRG is also including tips and tools in the TSP curriculum that can help TSPs manage projects more efficiently.

4. Changes to the landowner application process and project management procedures have also been efficiency barriers for TSPs and potential TSPs. NRCS now requires landowners to apply separately for wildlife habitat and forestry practices. Taking what had been one application and breaking it into two has resulted in lost efficiencies and timeliness on the ground. For example, thinning work for a forestry practice must be reviewed before the thinning materials can be used to make habitat piles (wildlife practice).  Where 1-4 practices could once be combined on a single acre, they now need to be done discretely, resulting in the project taking more time and requiring more administration, with less funding available to TSPs to cover project administrative costs.

5. One other barrier of concern to potential TSPs can occur when working with landowners on multi-year projects. Landowners must request explicit TSP funding on an annual basis, as landowners are not guaranteed TSP funding for the length of the EQIP contract. Additionally, the approval from NRCS for the TSP may not be in sync with the project schedule. Since EQIP funding cannot cover project work in arrears, this can delay the overall project schedule, or prevent the TSP from providing reimbursable services to the landowner. As such, NNRG’s curriculum will emphasize the importance of TSPs proactively reminding their EQIP clients to make requests to the NRCS to include their preferred TSP in their annual funding requests, as well as recommendations to the NRCS to adjust their TSP funding approval process to allow more seamless service to clients.

This feedback has greatly informed NNRG’s curriculum development beyond the instructional aspects of completing the TSP training to also include proven methods and tools for successful EQIP project implementation and management.

NNRG conducted individual interviews with several forest owners who signed up for EQIP projects to ascertain landowner perspectives on the program. Responses included mixed feedback, ranging from frustration due to lack of funding in local areas and contract requirements that were not considered suited to project scale; to satisfaction with the knowledge of NRCS staff and assistance in implementing restoration work they would not have otherwise been able to conduct.

Following the fall 2012 recruitment efforts from this project, NNRG worked with 16 landowners to develop Conservation Activity Plans in 2013. These activity plans account for 1,245 acres in the Puget Sound region. NNRG also served as the TSP to four landowners who implemented EQIP projects that included pre-commercial thinning, understory planting and wildlife habitat enhancement. Information on the total EQIP forestry projects and Conservation Activity Plans (CAP, i.e. a management plan) contracted in 2013 will be available from NRCS later this year.

In fall 2013, NNRG launched an EQIP media campaign through special email announcements, newsletters and social media. These efforts targeted forest owners and encouraged them to apply for EQIP by the January 2014 deadline. To date, 19 landowners reported applying for 2014 EQIP funding; including 15 CAPs. This campaign focused on increasing landowner awareness about cost-share opportunities that can assist them in implementing conservation practices such as pre-commercial thinning, stand release, culvert replacements for fish passage, management plan creation, wildlife habitat enhancement, and other practices important to improving and maintaining the health of natural resources. This outreach contributes toward the goal of recruiting 80-100 landowners to EQIP by 2015.

In 2013, six landowners signed up to conduct commercially viable forest thinning projects through NNRG’s NCF program. Four harvests were completed in 2013 and one other will finish the first week of 2014. The sixth harvest project will also finish in the first quarter of 2014. One landowner conducted the commercial harvest based on recommendations from the CAP they developed in 2012. Several others are considering applying for 2014 EQIP funds to develop management plans following their experience with the harvest work. Thus far, five of these projects returned an average of $11,000 of net income to landowners and an average of $23,000 gross income to professional foresters and operators.

• Email Outreach to Forest Owners
• Email Outreach to Forest Owners
• EQIP Project Tracking Workbook
• Email Outreach to Forest Owners

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

The desired outcome of the TSP training is for 10-12 participants to complete the TSP E-authentication, registration, Ag Learn trainings and submitted documents to await final NRCS review. In addition, NNRG intends for the course to include tools for new TSPs to successfully manage EQIP projects and introduce their clients and other forest owners to EQIP funding.

Promoting EQIP throughout this project is an important step for removing barriers to sustainable rural economic development. These efforts engage forest owners in seeking conservation assistance in a program, which in turn, engages professional foresters to become TSPs to meet the needs of landowners. This nexus will result in landowners having the information, economic and skilled contractor resources, and technical assistance needed to conduct restoration and conservation activities on their forests.

In 2014, NNRG will conduct the TSP trainings; continue EQIP promotion; facilitate additional CAP development, EQIP projects and commercial harvest projects; and coordinate with forest owners in developing recommendations from landowners on improvements to EQIP. 

Collaborators: