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USDA Seeks Innovative Partner-led Projects Delivering Sustainable Agricultural Solutions: WASHINGTON, March 16, 2021 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking proposals to fund up to $75 million in new, unique projects under the Regional Conservation Partnership Program’s (RCPP) Alternative Funding Arrangements (AFA) that take innovative and non-traditional approaches to conservation solutions at the local, regional and landscape scales. In making selections. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will prioritize projects related to climate smart agriculture and forestry.

Sue Cameron downloading data from a tree-mounted data logger: The spruce-fir moss spider is an endangered animal found only on the highest peaks of the Southern Appalachians. As its name implies, it lives in moss mats on the forest floor beneath the spruce-fir forest canopy. Even in that limited habitat, it is very particular about the type of moss it lives in. Sue Cameron is the Service expert for this species, and she recently visited Mount Mitchell State Park to search for the spider, and download humidity and temperature from data loggers that are continually recording the environmental data that may guide future management efforts. Credit: G. Peeples/USFWS. Image used for Issue banner.

Searching for birds and discussing high-elevation conservation at Mount Mitchell: As part of a recent visit to western North Carolina, leadership from the Fish and Wildlife Service’s southeastern regional office in Atlanta had an opportunity to visit a pair of places that are key to the Service’s conservation efforts – the streams of the Upper Nolichucky River valley, home to the Eastern hellbender and endangered Appalachian elktoe; and the summit of Mount Mitchell, one of many high-elevation peaks in the Southern Appalachians that are home to species found no-where else. Photo credit: Gary Peeples/USFWS. Photo used behind Expertise Search block on Homepage

About Banner: HDR image of an irrigation canal in Burley, Idaho, south of town. 10/8/2018 Photo by Kirsten Strough. From: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/51040145422/