Phillips County Local Work Group Meeting May 14th

Local Work Group Meetings are a valuable part of the NRCS planning process, providing an opportunity for agricultural producers, partner conservation organizations, and local land managers to be part of a collaborative effort to improve natural resources within our county.

The purpose of the 2019 Local Work Group Meeting is to gather information in preparation for the Long-Range Plan (LRP) for the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Phillips Conservation District to decide which natural resource concerns need the most attention in the next few years. This meeting will help shape plans and prioritize future projects that may prove beneficial to you.

In recent years, the Montana NRCS has focused their Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) on Area and Statewide resource concern priorities, which meant that a local producer would have to compete for funding with all other producer’s in the area/state to get their project approved for NRCS funding. In the future, the Montana NRCS will focus EQIP and other programs on Targeted Implementation Plans (TIP) that must be based the Phillips County Long Range Plan (LRP).

Your participation is very important! You have been invited to the Local Work Group meeting on May 14 from 9 to Noon @ the Phillips County Library basement to submit your priority resource concerns for Phillips County. In addition, you will be asked to submit any project ideas (these ideas may eventually become a TIP) to assist in solving Phillips Counties identified natural resource concerns.

The decisions made by the Local Working Group will guide the direction of conservation efforts and NRCS program funding within Phillips County in future years. This is YOUR opportunity to influence what will be the focus of natural resource conservation in the coming years.

Your OPINION MATTERS! In the event you cannot attend the Local Work Group meeting on May 14th, be sure to contact either Shilo Messerly, Malta Field Office NRCS District Conservationist or Jenifer Anderson, Phillips Conservation District Administrator ASAP to get a simple worksheet to write down your ideas related to this matter. Shilo Messerly [email protected] 406-654-1334 x 104 Jenifer Anderson [email protected] 406-654-1334 x 3.