WARWICK – A federal conservation agency today announced $1.2 million in newly available funds for local conservation efforts.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced plans for a second round of ranking of applications for the agency’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which provides financial and technical assistance to farmers and landowners for implementing conservation practices on their land.

Applications for this second round must be received no later than April 1, said Roylene Rides at the Door, Rhode Island state conservationist for the NRCS.

The $1.2 million in financial assistance available to Rhode Island farmers and landowners in this round can be used for managing erosion, pastures, invasive plant species, wildlife, manure, irrigation water, buffers and other projects.

In total, NRCS has made more than $2.8 million of financial assistance available to Rhode Island farmers and landowners through EQIP this year. Sixty-seven of 103 applications received by the NRCS were funded.

If you are a farmer or landowner and would like to find out more about the conservation programs the agency has to offer, please call the NRCS office in Warwick, at 828-1300, ext. 8.

Additional information about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NCRS) and its Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is available at www.nrcs.usda.gov.