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Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) - Kansas

Kansas RCPP Projects

Groundwater Recharge and Sustainability (GRASP)
Landscape with playas

The GRASP project will assist participants to address declining aquifer levels by providing land management and rental contracts to participants. With assistance from Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV) and other partners, GRASP will help producers with voluntary irrigation conservation and efficiency efforts and playa restoration to increase groundwater recharge. The project is applicable in Wichita and Greeley counties.

FY 2025 Sign-up Deadline: April 18, 2025

South Fork Republican River (SFRR)
Before (top) and after (bottom) photos of area where brush management has been implemented to remove undesirable plant species.

Participants can apply for assistance in increase groundwater quantity in Cheyenne County in the South Fork Republican River (SFRR) watershed. This project will target grazing lands by assisting with removal of phreatophytes (specifically Russian olive, Saltcedar, and Eastern Red Cedar species) and can also assist with converting windmills to a solar pump utilizing a float to conserve groundwater. 

FY 2025 Sign-up deadline: April 18, 2025

Southern High Plains Initiative (SHPI)
scenic view of Gates Ranch in southwest Kansas

The Southern High Plains Initiative (SHPI) RCPP project is a collaborative effort to help implement the Great Plains Grasslands Biome Framework, by defending and expanding grassland cores.  The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is the lead partner on the project, who has been collaborating with numerous conservation and producer-led groups to develop the SHPI. This effort is part of a multi-state project. TNC has identified 33 counties in the west-central portion of Kansas that will be eligible for the program. High priority will be given to those applications with property located in Logan, Gove, Scott, Clark, Comanche, Kiowa, and Barber County, Kansas, and Woods County, Oklahoma. Landowners & operators may sign up at the local field office to implement practices to preserve the Southern High Plains – including prescribed grazing, brush management, and other practices to improve and restore grasslands.

FY 2025 Entity-Held Easement application deadline is October 25, 2024. There will not be a FY 2025 land management/rental sign-up

Milford Lake
Soybeans Planted into Winter Wheat Stubble File Type jpg | Picture Size 2550 x 1913 Biological activity helps winter wheat residue decompose to become precious organic matter that helps plants grow. Years of managing soil for residue and to improve its quality allowed organic matter to build up making the darker color near the surface. A no-till field since 1990, this field has excellent organic matter under a corn-corn-broadleaf-wheat-broadleaf rotation for the last 10 years. 2011 was winter wheat

The Milford Watershed RCPP is a collaborative effort to improve water quality in Milford Lake and upstream. The focus of the program is on the Kansas portion of the watershed within the Lower Republican Basin in Clay, Cloud, Geary, Dickinson, Jewell, Mitchell, Republic, Riley, and Washington Counties. The project serves as one of the largest efforts undertaken within the Milford Lake Watershed to bring partners together in order to implement conservation practices. The Kansas Water Office is the lead partner, and numerous regional entities are contributing to the project. Landowners & operators may sign-up at their local field office to implement practices to improve the quality of water in the lake, including management practices such as No-Till, Cover Crops, Nutrient Management, and Prescribed Grazing. Funds are also available to remove cattle from water bodies and provide alternative water sources, as well as erosion-reducing systems such as terraces and waterways.

FY 2025 application deadline is November 1, 2024

Fiscal Year 2026 Information

Ready to get started?

Contact your local service center to start your application.

Find Your Local Service Center

USDA Service Centers are locations where you can connect with Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, or Rural Development employees for your business needs. Enter your state and county below to find your local service center and agency offices.

How to Get Assistance

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.

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how to get started

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:

  • To fill out an AD 1026, which ensures a conservation plan is in place before lands with highly erodible soils are farmed. It also ensures that identified wetland areas are protected.
  • To meet other eligibility certifications.

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:

  • An official tax ID (Social Security number or an employer ID)
  • A property deed or lease agreement to show you have control of the property; and
  • A farm number.

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.