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The Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program helps local communities recover after a natural disaster strikes. The program offers technical and financial assistance to help local communities relieve imminent threats to life and property caused by floods, fires, windstorms and natural disasters.
OVERVIEW
The EWP Program offers technical and financial assistance to help local communities relieve imminent threats to life and property caused by floods, fires, windstorms and other natural disasters that impair a watershed. EWP does not require a disaster declaration by federal or state government officials for program assistance to begin. The NRCS State Conservationist can declare a local watershed emergency and initiate EWP program assistance in cooperation with an eligible sponsor (see the Eligibility section below). NRCS will not provide funding for activities undertaken by a sponsor prior to the signing of a cooperative agreement between NRCS and the sponsor.
NRCS offers financial and technical assistance for various activities under the EWP Program, including:
-provide protection from flooding or soil erosion;
-reduce threats to life and property;
-restore the hydraulic capacity to the natural environment;
-economically and environmentally defensible.
Recovery projects begin with a local sponsor or legal subdivision of state or tribal government. Eligible sponsors include cities, counties, towns, conservation districts, or any federally-recognized Native American tribe or tribal organization. Interested public and private landowners must work through a sponsor.
In some situations, landowners can directly apply for assistance through a floodplain easement at the local NRCS office when project funding for floodplain easements becomes available. States will hold a signup period for the impacted communities and the local NRCS offices will publicize that information in the affected communities.
All EWP projects must have a sponsor and demonstrate that they reduce threats to life and property; be economically, environmentally and socially sound; and must be designed to acceptable engineering standards.
NRCS partners with diverse sponsors to complete EWP Program projects. Sponsors include cities, counties, towns, conservation districts, or any federally-recognized Native American tribe or tribal organization.
Sponsors can apply for EWP Program assistance directly to NRCS while public and private landowners can apply for this assistance through a local sponsor.
Check out the EWP Sponsor Resource page for more information.
Current Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program national news and announcements.
Below, is the list of EWP Program Managers by state; they will guide you thru the process on how best to access assistance thru the EWP program.
The Emergency Watershed Protection Program helps communities recover from natural disasters. The following success stories illustrate the agility of EWP to provide recovery assistance.
Resources for EWP Program assistance.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – signed by President Biden in November 2021 – is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure.
Sponsors should submit request for assistance letters ASAP. The Fiona EWP site submission deadline is October 31, 2022. Contact EWP Coordinator Lisbeth San Miguel at Lisbeth.SanMiguel-Rivera@usda.gov.
EWPP helps conserve natural resources by relieving imminent threats to life and property. In the Caribbean Area, EWPP is clearing and repairing waterways impacted by hurricanes Irma and María in September 2017 and tropical storms Dorian (2019) and Isaías (2020). Through EWPP, NRCS works with land stewards, land owners and local government agencies to assess and implement debris removal and streambank stabilization in directly impacted areas. Sponsors include municipalities, conservation districts, the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER), and the Virgin Islands Department of Public Works (DPW).
Want an overview of EWP Implementation in the Caribbean Area after Hurricanes Irma & María? Check out our YouTube webinar at https://youtu.be/er4zTD0Tafc.
Yilia BaucageBou, State Conservation Engineer, 787-766-5715 or 787-342-6916
Lisbeth San Miguel Rivera, EWP Coordinator, 787-766-6140 or 939-208-0931
NRCS Caribbean engineer inspects Puerto Rico EWP project after heavy rains and follows up with residents to ensure proper function of the project.
In June 2018, NRCS and partners completed one of the largest Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWPP) debris removal projects (DSR number PR-MOC-001) in western Puerto Rico.
USDA is ready to help in the aftermath of natural disasters. Find which program best fits your current situation and needs.
USDA along with other agencies offer a wide range of disaster recovery assistance following these unfortunate events. Check out the agencies and their programs below for more information.
Farmers, ranchers, and non-industrial private forestland owners can apply for resource assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. Eligible land includes cropland, rangeland, and non-industrial private forestland. Recovery assistance includes but is not limited to: immediate soil erosion protection, minimizing noxious and invasive plant proliferation, protecting water quality, restoring livestock infrastructure necessary for grazing management, emergency animal mortality management.
When catastrophic non-disease natural events (ie. flood, fire, weather-related) occur, financial assistance for emergency animal mortality management may be offered.
Producers can contact the local field office at that time for more details.
Contact your local service center to start your application.
Do you farm or ranch and want to make improvements to the land that you own or lease?
Natural Resources Conservation Service offers technical and financial assistance to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners.
To get started with NRCS, we recommend you stop by your local NRCS field office. We’ll discuss your vision for your land.
NRCS provides landowners with free technical assistance, or advice, for their land. Common technical assistance includes: resource assessment, practice design and resource monitoring. Your conservation planner will help you determine if financial assistance is right for you.
We’ll walk you through the application process. To get started on applying for financial assistance, we’ll work with you:
Once complete, we’ll work with you on the application, or CPA 1200.
Applications for most programs are accepted on a continuous basis, but they’re considered for funding in different ranking periods. Be sure to ask your local NRCS district conservationist about the deadline for the ranking period to ensure you turn in your application in time.
As part of the application process, we’ll check to see if you are eligible. To do this, you’ll need to bring:
If you don’t have a farm number, you can get one from USDA’s Farm Service Agency. Typically, the local FSA office is located in the same building as the local NRCS office. You only need a farm number if you’re interested in financial assistance.
NRCS will take a look at the applications and rank them according to local resource concerns, the amount of conservation benefits the work will provide and the needs of applicants. View Application Ranking Dates by State.
If you’re selected, you can choose whether to sign the contract for the work to be done.
Once you sign the contract, you’ll be provided standards and specifications for completing the practice or practices, and then you will have a specified amount of time to implement. Once the work is implemented and inspected, you’ll be paid the rate of compensation for the work if it meets NRCS standards and specifications.
