Technical Service Provider Training to Improve Services for Family Forest Landowners

Technical Service Provider Training to Improve Services for Family Forest Landowners

Summary

In the first half of 2015, Northwest Natural Resource Group (NNRG) hosted the second two-day Technical Service Provider (TSP) training. Six natural resource professionals participated in the workshop. Two people completed the TSP registration process, including one early professional.

NNRG continued outreach to forest producers in Washington and Oregon about the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and encouraged landowners to submit applications to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to obtain cost-share and technical assistance for conservation practices.

NNRG obtained information from NRCS about EQIP contracts awarded during the project period (2012-2014) in Washington State. From 2012-2014, NRCS in Washington State reports contracting 67 Conservation Activity Plans (CAPs; i.e. forest management plans) and contracting for 776 EQIP conservation practices for forest stand improvements.

From 2012 to spring 2015, more than 68 forest owners informed NNRG that they applied to EQIP for funds to develop management plans and conduct practices to enhance timber quality and overall productivity on more than 1,800 acres. NNRG assisted 27 forest producers who were awarded EQIP funds in developing CAPs and/or connecting them to resources to implement conservation practices.

NNRG assisted two landowners in the first half of 2015 with commercial timber harvest operations. These projects were designed to use selective thinning methods to improve forest health and wood quality. The harvests reduced fuel loads, generated income for the forest producers, and employed natural resource contractors; thereby contributing to the rural economy. During this project, NNRG worked with 17 landowners on commercially viable forest health thinning treatments across 330 acres that generated more than $500,000.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Since the outset of this project, NNRG’s primary objective has been to help cultivate a broader network of forestry professionals who can respond to producer-demand for EQIP projects and the broader need for technical forestry-related conservation assistance.

NNRG identified the following specific performance targets:

• Increase the number of TSPs to a total of at least 12 in Washington and Oregon.
• Increase the number of forestland owners (forest producers) applying for EQIP projects to include 80-100 new projects over two years.
• Increase the number of NNRG member landowners, by an additional 6-10 per year, who choose to undertake forest health thinning operations outside of EQIP projects as a way of generating sustainable revenue and funding restoration actions.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Technical Service Provider Training

NNRG hosted the second TSP workshop in March 2015 in Tacoma, WA. The two-day workshop covered the requirements for becoming a TSP, the Farm Bill as it relates to NRCS and EQIP, EQIP funding and priority conservation practices, understanding NRCS Priority Resource Concerns, the influence of NRCS Local Working Groups on funding, TSP and EQIP payment rates, developing Conservation Activity Plans (CAPs), developing and implementing EQIP-funded conservation projects, designing NRCS job sheets, and navigating the TechReg and AgLearn systems. Workshop participants received a USB flash drive that served as a toolkit of materials for registering for the TSP program and managing EQIP-funded projects. NNRG partnered with NRCS to included one NRCS staff person at the workshop to help participants complete the eAuthentication process, navigate through the TechReg and AgLearn systems, and connect directly to NRCS TSP state and national coordinators to resolve issues during the course. 

Six natural resource professionals participated in the course. Their primary service areas ranged throughout western and eastern Washington and northern Oregon. Two participants have already reported completing the TSP registration process.

Feedback on the workshop content was positive as participants gained a comprehensive overview of the TSP program and began or completed the process of registering through NRCS eAuthentication, TechReg and AgLearn to become a TSP. Regardless of how many of these participants eventually complete the entire TSP registration process, feedback indicates that these participants will be advocates and ambassadors for EQIP through their professional careers.

EQIP Recruitment

In the spring of 2015, NNRG launched an outreach campaign promoting EQIP and cost-share programs to coincide with the Washington NRCS EQIP deadline (July 17, 2015). The July 2015 cutoff for 2016 fiscal year funding was earlier than the typical autumn or winter deadlines for EQIP. (On July 15, 2015, the summer cutoff date was extended to October 16, 2015).

Outreach included email announcements, newsletters, workshop collateral, and social media announcements (http://nnrg.org/resources/eqip/) to more than 2,500 forest owners in the NNRG database. These efforts targeted Oregon and Washington forest producers. NNRG focused the outreach campaign on increasing landowner awareness about cost-share opportunities and do-it-yourself resources. The “Funding Forest Stewardship” series included resources on forest management plans, increasing biodiversity and forest productivity, and fuels reduction. 

Funding Forest Stewardship series in spring 2015 (updated in July 2015)

• Forest management plans – http://nnrg.org/special-announcement-funding-forest-stewardship-make-a-plan/
• Fuel reduction & forest health – http://nnrg.org/funding-forest-stewardship-fuel-reduction-and-forest-health/
• Enhance forest health & biodiviersity – http://nnrg.org/funding-forest-stewardship-enhance-forest-health/

As a result of this outreach, 10 landowners reported to NNRG that they intended to apply for 2016 EQIP funding; including 3 CAPs. Since the beginning of this project, 68 landowners have indicated to NNRG that they applied, or intended to apply, for EQIP; thus, contributing toward the goal of recruiting 80-100 landowners to EQIP. Determining the number of forest producers that NNRG assisted directly or indirectly is challenging as NRCS has indicated that they do not to track the number applications, nor does the agency share contract information (to protect the confidentiality of producers). However, NRCS staff have recognized NNRG as an important partner for promoting EQIP to forest producers in the Puget Sound region.

NNRG obtained information from the Washington State NRCS about EQIP contracts awarded during the project period years of 2012, 2013 and 2014. NRCS in Washington State reports contracting 67 Conservation Activity Plans (CAPs; i.e. forest management plans) and contracting for 776 EQIP conservation practices pertaining to forest improvements. A single EQIP contract can include multiple conservation practices, so discerning the actual number of producers is difficult. Washington State NRCS issued 423 contracts in 2012, 181 contracts in 2013, and 172 contracts in 2012.

Following EQIP recruitment efforts from this project, NNRG worked with 27 landowners to develop Conservation Activity Plans (15 in 2013, 10 in 2014, 2 in 2015 during the project period). These activity plans account for 1,800 acres in western Washington. NNRG also served as the TSP to four forest producers who implemented EQIP projects that included pre-commercial thinning, understory planting, and wildlife habitat enhancement.

Selective Thinning Assistance to Forest Producers

In the first half of 2015, NNRG assisted two forest producers in conducting commercially viable forest thinning projects. These landowners transitioned from passive to active management when they used EQIP to develop conservation activity plans for their forests in 2013 and 2014. The 17 forest producers who NNRG worked with during this project conducted commercially viable selective harvests across 330 acres. These selective thinning harvests removed 30-40% of the dead, declining, and suppressed trees from treated stands. Harvests averaged 20 acres, each project employed 3.25 natural resource contractors (logging crew and truck driver) for 3-6 weeks, produced an average of 69,000 board feet of wood material, and grossed an average of $1,600 per acre or $820 per thousand board feet. In total, these harvests contributed more than $500,000 to the regional economy. 

• TSP Workshop Announcment
• TSP Workshop Agenda
• EQIP Announcment

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

In the first half of 2015, NNRG continued to carry out the main objectives of this project. NNRG conducted the second TSP training, connected forest producers in Oregon and Washington to TSPs, continued EQIP promotion, developed CAPs for forest producers, connected forest producers to contractors to implement EQIP-funded conservation practices, administered commercial thinning projects, and coordinated with forest owners and potential TSPs in developing recommendations for improvements to EQIP. 

The desired outcome of the professional trainings was for 10-12 participants to become Technical Service Providers for NRCS in Oregon and Washington. Through NNRG’s workshops 15 natural resource professionals were trained on the TSP registration process, the requirements for becoming a TSP, the Farm Bill as it relates to NRCS and EQIP, EQIP funding and priority conservation practices, understanding NRCS Priority Resource Concerns and the influence of NRCS Local Working Groups, TSP and EQIP payment rates, developing Conservation Activity Plans (CAPs), developing and implementing EQIP-funded conservation projects, designing NRCS job sheets, and navigating the TechReg and AgLearn systems.

NNRG is aware of four participants completing the TSP materials submission process. These natural resource professionals include two young professionals serving northwest Washington, one professional serving the San Juan Islands, and one professional serving western Oregon. These natural resource professionals found the process time intensive, but considered becoming TSPs a worthwhile investment to serve their existing clients and to potentially serve a greater range of forest producers.

All workshop participants indicate they recognized the valuable resource that EQIP and the TSP program could provide the forest producers they serve. Participants had been interested in the program but wanted to learn more before they pursued becoming TSPs, they expressed concerns about the time intensive and administratively complex process to complete the TSP program. They deemed the TSP workshop informative and helpful to overcome these barriers.

Some professionals reported they were ultimately discouraged in becoming TSPs due to a number of factors: 1) investment to attend NRCS Local Working Group meetings and advocate for funding for conservation practices on behalf of forest producers, 2) fluctuating funding priorities and budgets from year to year result in uncertainty for conservation practices that can result in delaying management activities and cause frustration for their clients/forest producers, and 3) NRCS’ declining contract rates for CAPs since 2012 were seen as an indicator of insufficient funds to incentivize forest producers to use the EQIP system.

Over the course of this project, the working group of TSPs, natural resource professionals, and forest producers who use EQIP or want to use EQIP greatly informed NNRG’s future promotion of the program. Forest producers and natural resource professionals indicated they would benefit from NNRG or another entity promoting the dates for NRCS Local Working Group meetings. Natural resource professionals found it important to help producers connect to EQIP as well as other resources and mechanisms to implement conservation practices. They emphasized the importance of this factor as their service areas did not always receive EQIP funds for forest conservation practices (Linn and Benton Counties in Oregon often have no funding for forest conservation practices, whereas Columbia County in Oregon has more resources for forest practices). Forest producers expressed exasperation at the inconsistency of funding, contracts taking significant time to finalize and then having truncated timelines to complete practices (contracts take longer to sign, but the deadline to get work done doesn’t changed with the contract delay, yet no work can be conducted until after the contract is signed). They also indicated that there were few assistance programs available to them and that if they were already planning to do conservation practices (reduce brush and fuels, pre-commercial thin, or restock poorly planted stands), EQIP was helpful to them in leveraging their resources to improve the timber quality and overall productivity of their forests.

Working group feedback, influenced NNRG’s promotion of EQIP. NNRG and working group members recognized EQIP as an important resource for removing barriers to sustainable rural economic development, such that NNRG’s “Funding Forest Stewardship” EQIP promotion efforts in 2014 and 2015 were refined from earlier outreach. Later promotion of EQIP highlighted it as a resource among a limited pool of funding sources, outlined more do-it-yourself resources, and encouraged landowners to contact local natural resource professionals. These repeated efforts engaged forest producers in seeking conservation assistance from natural resource professionals. This nexus continues to 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 the first half of 2015, NNRG assisted two forest producers in conducting commercially viable forest thinning projects. NNRG worked with 17 forest producers during this project and assisted them in conducting commercially viable selective harvests across 330 acres. These harvest projects averaged 20 acres per producer, removed 30-40% of dying and suppressed trees from stands to promote growth and structural complexity. Each harvest employed, on average, 3.25 natural resource contractors (logging crew and truck driver) for 3-6 weeks, produced an average of 69,000 board feet of wood material, and grossed an average of $1,600 per acre ($820 per thousand board feet). In total, they contributed more than $500,000 to the regional economy.  

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