2008 Conservation Innovation Grants Awards

Fiscal Year 2008 State Component Awards

In Montana approximately $365,000 in competitive grants is being awarded to successful applicants for the 2008 USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Montana Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG). The projects are judged on their innovation and each must address at least one of five resource concerns: water resources, soil resources, atmospheric resources, grazing land and forest health resources, and wildlife resources. Each of this year’s selected applicants proposed innovative approaches, and each effectively addressed those key concerns.

A total of 15 applications were submitted. The six approved projects propose to:

• Characterize methods for the temporal and spatial variability of solar radiation across Montana for improved use of solar technologies.
  Submitted by the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Services, Montana State University.
  The placement and sizing of solar technologies is dependent on knowledge of the availability of solar radiation. This project will develop a Web-based system to communicate the availability and dependability of solar radiation across the state of Montana.
   
• Enhance efficiency of surface broadcast urea N applications to no-till wheat.
  Submitted by the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Service, Montana State University.
  This project will measure ammonia losses from urea fertilizer and a coated fertilizer urea product applied at different times of the year to wheat under no-till management. Its purpose is to quantify on-farm gas emissions of ammonia from surface application of urea fertilizer and provide methods to mitigate losses into the environment.
   
• Manage on-farm energy budgets with legume green manure.
  Submitted by the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Science, Montana State University.
  The goal of this project is to assess legume green manures in north central Montana. This land management change is expected to increase energy gain in dry land wheat production by supplementing crop nitrogen needs with energy-efficient biological sources.
   
• Use NRCS ecological sites and ecosystem modeling for collaborative conservation and management planning.
  Submitted by the Ecosystem Management Research Institute, Seeley Lake, MT.
  The project’s purpose is to demonstrate the use of NRCS ecological sites and accompanying data in conjunction with a spatially explicit landscape model for conservation planning and site level management.
   
• Create an energy audit data collector training program.
  Submitted by EnSave, Inc. to help meet the need for more qualified energy auditors by creating a training program for local conservation partners and other agriculture personnel. The training would be conducted both in the class room and on the farm.
   
• Engage new forestland owners in the Swan Valley.
  Submitted by Anne Dahl with collaborators Swan Ecosystem Center, Scott Bagley, and the National Network of Forest Practitioners.
  The purpose of this project is to help new residents of the area protect the ecological integrity, protect wildlife habitat, and maintain productive “working forests” for their private forestlands in the face of expanding residential development.

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