 All right. It sounds like those coming into the meeting are starting to slow down. So we'll go ahead and get started this morning. Again, welcome to everybody. We appreciate you joining us here this morning for our quarterly State Technical Advisory Committee meeting. My name is Jeannie Hamilton, and I'm currently serving as your acting state conservationist for the NRCS here in South Dakota. We've got 44 people on the call this morning, so we're not going to go around and do introductions. But I would ask that as you raise your hand or jump unmute yourself to speak, if you would just give us a really brief introduction of who you are and who you are maybe representing in the meeting today. Other than that, you have the ability to mute and unmute yourself. But please keep your mics on mute if you're not speaking, and that'll just help us with the feedback as others are trying to speak. One thing I want to share quickly with all of you, just so you're aware of where we are currently. I'm getting some feedback right now. All right. I just wanted to let all of you know USDA is still being extremely cautious with allowable travel and things like that due to COVID and the current uptick in COVID cases that we're seeing across the country. Our offices are going to remain in the current status that we're in right now with limited staff within our offices and the doors locked to the public. Some ability to have folks enter the building through appointments and things like that. But very limited as far as what we're going to be able to do here over the next few months, as far as face-to-face meetings and conferences. So just so you're aware, if you are planning meetings and conferences and you're inviting NRCS to attend, if there's an ability for us to be there virtually, we will do everything we can to attend in that manner, but that it will be extremely limited what we're able to do in person. So I just wanted to share that with you all so that you're aware of that moving forward. We've submitted a plan to start phasing our employees back into the office and start opening things back up, but that plan is not expected to even begin until next fiscal year starting October 1. So that's all I wanted to share before I kick it over to some of the other folks here in the meeting. We've got a pretty full agenda and lots of things that I'm sure people want to visit about this morning. So I'm going to stop there and I see we've got some of our congressional representatives on and I would ask for comments and updates from them. And Ryan, you're on my screen. So if you have some updates, I'll kick it to you first. Thanks, Junie. I'm Ryan Donley, Senator Thune's AG legislative assistant out here in DC. Just a couple updates on my end. I would flag that USDA last week announced that they are going to extend the deadline to sign up for the Soil Health and Income Protection Program ship until the end of July. That's a three to five year option within CRP. So just encourage folks to take a look at that. We also got some good news recently on a hang and grazing issue that we've been working on on prevent plant acres. Obviously, it would have been more helpful in the last two years when we were extremely wet, but pleased with the decision that they're going to remove the November 1 day restriction on hang and grazing cover crops on those prevent plant acres moving forward. And then lastly, I would just flag that we're monitoring the drought and CRP and looking at hang and grazing flexibilities there. And I appreciate that that's on the agenda and that you all are looking at that. And we're pretty familiar with how the farm bill was written and the restrictions that are in place on it specific to hang. But just appreciate that that's something that you all are taking a look at and let us know if there's anything we can do to help. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Other congressional updates. Sorry, I can't see my full list of who's on here this morning. Hey, I jump in. This is Katie with Congressman Dusty Johnson's office. And I don't have a lot to add. Just looking forward to the presentation today and getting new news to help folks out here too. But I'm on. All right. Thank you, Katie. Other questions or comments from our congressional representatives or for them? This is Rebecca Herman. I'm with Senator Brown's office. My colleague Jim was going to hop on, but he might have gotten caught up with something else that came up. So I guess I would just echo the other congressional offices looking forward to listening in today. And if Jim Jim happens to hop on, he might have a few things to add, but nothing from Senator Brown's team at this time. All right. Thank you. All right. Then with that, I will kick it over to Joe and Owen for some updates from the FSA office. Thanks, Jeannie. Joe is not able to be on today. He had a conflicting call that he was had to be on. So I'll take the reins for FSA. So my name is Owen Fegerhog, constitutional program manager for the Farm Service Agency up in Huron. I'm just going to touch on some of the conservation related items today. Provide some updates on some sign up deadlines and opportunities in front of us for the conservation reserve program. And then I'll, I guess, address the elephant in the room, I would say, is with the emergency hay graze opportunities and what we can and can't do and kind of how that all works. So first off, we've got a suite of conservation practices currently in front of us for sign up opportunities. The continuous CRP and CREP sign up has a deadline of August 6th to make application for the continuous CRP. General CRP is the probably the earliest deadline and that's coming up here July 23rd. So the end of this week is the deadline for the general CRP sign up. Ship sign up, the Soil Health Income Protection Program was extended through July 30th. So we've got a couple of weeks, a week and a half left on that. And then the most recent one added for sign up opportunity was the CRP grasslands, the working lands program. And that sign up started July 12th and runs through August 20th. So have quite a few options on the table for producers to look at and entertain when they come in to look at conservation on their landscape. In addition to that, another conservation related program that we have currently going on is ECP, Emergency Conservation Program. We did have some wildfires earlier this spring, where it helps restore the infrastructure, the fence, the conservation structures that may have been damaged by that wildfire. But the most prevalent one we have in the state right now would be the ECP drought. So to help provide emergency water to livestock producers for watering facilities and to get emergency water on the pasture that's affected by the drought. So got a lot going on on those two programs. And lastly, just wanted to look at or discuss the emergency hain and grazing provisions, try to give a high level overview of where we're at with that. So to qualify for emergency hain on CRP, a county needs to do one of two things. They need to be at least a D2 on the drought monitor, the US drought monitor, or be able to show a 40% below normal and moisture for the previous four months. Hitting the drought monitor D2 has not been a challenge for South Dakota this year. We've got a high percentage of counties that are currently eligible for emergency hain and grazing. That authority on the haining piece does not allow the participant to hay until we get through the primary nesting season date of August 1. And so August 2 would be the first available date for folks to exercise the emergency hain provisions if they've made application and have approvals and those things from their local FSA office. The other provision in the other provision in regards to the emergency hain as if a county, if the drought severity gets the county to a LFP, livestock feed program eligibility, it limits the grazing to a 50% accepting rate, limits the hain opportunity to only eight CP practices at a 50% of the acreage. In light of both of those provisions under the emergency, the non-emergency provisions are also applicable for any participant to exercise. If the participant can meet or the acreage can meet the frequency for the hain which would be once every third year and the participant cannot hay more than 75% of the acreage and they must pay the payment reduction when they're doing the non-emergency. So each county has specific criteria obviously based on the drought monitor designation and the LFP triggers if they've been met or not. And then each acreage is also going to have to be looked at as far as the CP practice on the landscape, the frequency in which it had been hayed previously, or non-emergency provisions and such. So it's not a blanket, one size fits all, it's we have to make application evaluate and see what works best for that participant. So are there any questions in regards to my comment so far? They're taking it easy on us today, Jeanie. Good morning. This is Crystal Smith with South Dakota Farm Bureau. Yes. Oh and thank you for your update and for sharing the details of all the benchmarks that need to be hit before CRP acres are opened. You know I guess as we've been hearing from a lot of our members throughout the state, this is a really really critical time and you know in some cases the CRP acres are even too far gone to even you know be available for quality feedstock. So I guess we would just like to register our request for an early access to that and I know that there are lots of details that have to happen but is there any discussion about opening those acres early? What information can we help with? Does it help to have testimonials from our members? Are you hearing from you know any of your clients? I guess I'd just like to have a little further conversation about that because I think it's a really critical time and as we know you know the hay is in short supply and increasing in price and so we just want to be able to do whatever we can to help our producers so they're not having to face reduction of herd. Okay. So yeah I can speak to the primary nesting season dates and kind of what we've learned on how that process takes place or how that process is looked at. So we are aware from the agency standpoint that the Congressional's had put forth the memo requesting a July 15th release on the CRP emergency haying. It's not as simple as just saying yep we can we can open it up July 15th. To change the way the statute is written it reads that the activity cannot be completed during the primary nesting season. So to open it up early we would have had to change the primary nesting season end date whether we wanted to look at it as a temporary or a permanent basis it didn't matter. To change a primary nesting season end date takes a full environmental evaluation or environmental assessment of that date to see what impacts there would be and with that there comes is a requirement that there's a 30-day comment period for the for the public to comment on that specific change or that environmental assessment. By the time that this got pushed and started getting looked at and you did the math on the 30 days there was no way we could speed it up to realize anything prior to the August 2nd date that we're currently bound to. So something that can be looked at in the future some better planning for forethought on impacts when we get into these situations but I guess I would defer to the wildlife community and the conservation partners on you know any dialogue on impacts to the actual conservation the wildlife you know that we're protecting with the CRP acreage and those types of things because sometimes when we look at things it opens up Pandora's box and it may be more restrictive than less restrictive if we get into some of these other situations but it was looked at it was you know evaluated within the agency and NRCS you know we worked in conjunction together but just did not have any latitude to to do anything. I don't know what response I've not been afforded or seen a copy of any response was afforded to the Congressional's on their inquiry but that's the guidance and direction that we got within the agency so I don't know if Jeanie or Jeff if you have anything to offer on that. Yeah I appreciate that overview Owen and that is in line with with how things have happened over the last month here through those discussions and you know we we do hear and see the stress out there from the farmers and the ranchers and we understand their concerns but as Owen said you know our responsibilities as an agency and to the the ground and the reason behind CRP being there we do have to make sure that we're evaluating all of our resources and the impacts to those and not making those really quick decisions that don't take into account all the the different resources and the different partners and input and allowing everybody the ability to to voice their their concerns and support so. Okay well I I do appreciate that and thank you for taking a look at it you know I guess what what I'm hearing is we really need to start earlier in years that might have predictions of of you know some drought conditions. Can I ask one more question Owen and I have to confess that I do not know a lot about this program but heard from a couple of my members regarding the emergency water resources and just some questions about streamlining that process my understanding from those conversations are that you know there needs to be an environmental assessment in those cases too and my understanding is that some of those resources are kind of backed up due to lack of staffing is that an accurate understanding and is there anything we can do to try to you know kind of help those people out there that that need to expedite that process. Yeah no your understanding is correct when we're installing permanent installation of a watering facility so we're burying pipeline putting down a permanent tank that does require that environmental review and there's a lot of times we have to consult with the state historic preservation office tribal historic preservation office some different folks that have opportunities to comment if there's findings of impact out there and they have a 30 day window in which they can respond if they don't respond within the 30 days with that's our green light to go forward so that is the probably that timing in some cases there needs to be a professional archaeologist on site to go out and do some evaluations depending on their workload I'm sure there's some time frames there that that can be a little bit restrictive but the failsafe for the one that I guess I we try to promote the most is if it's a true emergency and things that there are temporary measures that can be taken place temporary pipeline across the ground temporary tank those don't have the same same parameters because we're not disturbing that ground we're not burying that pipe so folks do have the temporary option you know the band-aid fix so to speak to get the water out there so there are some things that we can help mitigate in those instances understand permanence better because we don't have to address it the next time it gets dry but we do have things that we have to have to abide by as we go through that process anytime there's federal dollars attached to that we need to be sure we're checking the boxes so okay thanks for that explanation yep you're welcome and I'll stick around here on the call oh and this is Jim seltzer with senator rounds office yes sir okay so what one of the issues that we run into with constituents concerns is our our nesting season for our state is is like July 9th or 10th and our federal one is August 1st so they can start the early Hain or graze Hain on August 2nd and so that you know we're dealing with the same species I assume so they just want to know why the difference and I guess I can't answer the question so the date that I have stuck in my head is July 15th for a lot of our easement programs and then it's August 2nd for our conservation programs and the way it was explained to me and I think the best way that I can explain it back is the July 15th date the easement prohibits breaking of that acreage for farming purposes it maintains that grass cover out there okay it's not particularly targeted at the nesting the wildlife benefits of those things the August 2nd date is the conservation reserve program which has those enduring benefits to wildlife targets those types of things and that nesting season goes longer for those types of the things that we're trying to protect we go to that August 2nd date for those reasons so it's it's the not breaking the grass on the July 15th and it's the enduring benefits the conservation cover for that August 2nd date and that's how it was explained to myself so okay well you know going forward we're going to have to work together and come up with solutions because you know for the constituents this is just not workable waiting this late when we've got hay prices going north of three three hundred and four hundred dollars a ton it's just not workable for those those folks with livestock so we're I mean obviously I'll be the lead from this office on it but we're gonna have to do something different because when the governor can release all the state ground that early and then we have federal ground and and we've got similar situations and we're we're following different rules for the same region and it just doesn't make sense to the constituent so I assure you that all of the CRP acreage is following the same rule yeah so understand the concern though I guess it's it's the policy that we have in place today well I understand where we're sitting today and then and I understand that there's some some limitations as to what you guys can do based on what's in statute but but we're gonna have to address this because we will have a drought again someday that's we're one day closer to getting out of this one and probably a day closer to the next one so right thanks on totally you know we're here to work together and and follow what's been passed and try to enact it the best we can so but understand and hear the concern my dad's in the same boat we're about a quarter of the hay crop we had last year and right fortunately these late rains we've had are these last three weeks of rains is going to at least make silage and some corn so it's going to stretch what forage we do have a little bit further sure thanks yep thank you turn back to you Jeannie all right thanks Owen um so next on the agenda we have some of our staff here at the state office on our um technical staff talking about some things that we can maybe be thinking about ahead of that next potential drought and what we can do to be a little more prepared for that so Jess I'll turn it over to you okay thanks Jeannie um as uh most of you are aware I'm Jessica Mahalski state resource conservationist for South Dakota NRCS and hopefully you can see the presentation on the screen can somebody let me know that it's up and working looks good yep okay um so obviously uh drought is a is a very big concern um to all of us on this call today um those of us that are producers and uh and uh employees of NRCS and other other partner agencies um very concerned about the impact that the drought is having on our farmers and ranchers um and so we just we wanted to take it some time here because I think it's it's pretty impactful with the situation that we're in right now to really think about this current situation and think about what we can do in years to come um to really have a good plan in place ahead of the drought so that we can really build that resiliency to drought um and I know a lot of producers that that work with us and with our partners um really are more resilient during these times and I think it can make a huge difference so with that I am going to turn it over to Emily Helms our state range management specialist and uh then she'll be followed by Marsha Denneke our state agronomist thanks Jess so um I'm going to start off talking about grassland planning basic planning for um conservation and resilience so when when we start as an agency with planning we usually start off by inventorying our resources so for a producer they don't they can go through NRCS to go through this plan or they can do it themselves but so we want to inventory our resources or develop a document of what you have on all of your grazing lands this doesn't just have to be the grass this include can include cropland if you intend to graze it so you want to document your pastures how many pastures do you have what size what kind of forage isn't available for for grazing and then what infrastructure do you have in each of those pastures fences your water sources be it a pipeline or a dam what sensitive areas do you have do you have anything that maybe is more sensitive to erosion like in sandy soils um and then what animals do you have to graze those acres so you have your cattle what kind of cattle how how much are they going to eat what size the numbers and also we want to consider our wildlife because a lot of people in South Dakota utilize wildlife as another income source so when we're considering grazing a piece of land we also want to consider leaving some behind not only for the health of the ground but also for wildlife production so in the next step after so as you're inventorying your range land we have a couple of tools that can help with this inventory the South Dakota drought tool uses precipitation data to determine the status of grassland forage production so it uses a two-year weighted average to help predict and also determine the current status of production and then we also have the South Dakota grazing tool this uses soils information to help you develop your forage inventory and then also has worksheets that help you balance that forage with the amount of animals you have and then you can also develop a grazing plan within this worksheet so it's pretty handy and we have a couple of videos on how to use it as well so it's used by a lot of our partners in developing your grazing plants as well go ahead Jess um so then after you've gotten your inventory you've maybe put it into the grazing tool figured out where you're standing you you want to figure out you want to assess those resources do you have an forage for a normal year and then can you you can figure out where you need to cut back or where you need you can add more animals um and then are your water sources adequate for all years do you have good water for drought and are your water sources going to be adequate in a flood like are your dams going to run over and you're going to have this issue in your casters because you have too much water like you want to think about all the cases not just like a normal year and then is your land healthy is it resilient do you have the right plants where they should be are they going to bounce back after a drought or are we going to have to like reduce stocking next year as well because they get overgrazed too often and like we want to make sure that we're always planning for a drought open for rain but making sure that our grasslands are resilient with good grazing management so as you're planning all this consider what improvements you want to make first and what goals you have for the future so that we're not always hoping we're not always like in a rush and just making sure that we're resilient in our decisions and then determine how and what improvements will help you reach those goals so the first step is to build a plan of action to address any of the areas of improvement needed you want to build a grazing plan to help build resiliency so building rotations rest and increasing recovery periods helps to build resiliency on grasslands and you can also utilize cropland resources to give pastures rest when needed maybe planting a cover crop grazing corn stocks or something like that to give your grass acres or rest is always a good option and writing a contingency plan to address any issues that may arise during the year so consider what happens during a drought how are you going to get through those dry years when there's less forage but what are you going to do during a wet period and then what's your plan for other natural disasters like hail or tornadoes or if you have an early blizzard what's that going to look like for your operation it's good to have all this stuff written down so then when some kind of like event occurs you have this roadmap already built so you're not so stressed out during that time frame you can just go oh i have a plan in place this is what i'm going to do and then you can use those action steps to help you through and then you're not so stressed because like stressful situations just make everything even worse so having a plan is always a good a good plan uh and then um so having an action plan having due dates assigned when those improve for those improvements so when i'm going to put that pipeline in when i'm going to build that fence when i'm going to start rotational grazing those are always it's a good way to hold you accountable and it also helps you build that roadmap for success and so NRCS we have these planners in place across the state that can help you develop these plans and they can help explain your technologies or help you brainstorm ideas and practices that may help you along the way um and our partners are also awesome and excellent at this as well so um getting involved with the local office is a great step to for the to plan ahead of the next drought thanks Emily um so i guess you know sometimes we think about yeah um why do we want to include drought planning on our crop land acres you know we have crop insurance why do we want you know why do we want to take that into consideration and i guess the biggest reason that we want to think about that is that agriculture is usually the first economic sector to be affected by drought when we have a drought you know our soil moisture decreases and sometimes that can happen very rapidly um the crop health is impacted our yields are impacted um and we often you know not just we often not only have a lack of precipitation but we have high winds and high temperatures right and so all of those things are contributing to what's going out what's going on into the yeah in the field and so um the effects of egg drought you know depend on on a lot of things including timing and susceptibility of when that when that happens um you know so if we have a period of water and temperature stress you know that that period might coincide um with the critical development stage of one crop while you know maybe missing that critical what weather sensitive stage of a different crop so when we um think about drought planning and and we're and we're considering you know what we want to do we really want to look at what are the negative impacts associated with the cropping system that we're considering right nothing's 100 full proof right we always have benefits and some associated negatives that we have to overcome right so when we think about drought conditions we know that our growing plants experience stress right they have um it could be due to a lack of nutrients or um adequate moisture we know that hot dry weather slows our biological organisms and therefore that anticipated decomposition of organic matter doesn't occur at the same rate it would in a normal year um we have an increased risk of offsite movements of of unused nutrients you know our plants are not taking up maybe all the nutrients that we applied so things that we want to consider is would there be a benefit to split application of nutrients you know had I put those nutrients on in two in two operations could that have given me the ability to maybe reduce that rate you know and you have to counteract that with that additional trip over the field which one is going to give you a bigger benefit um you know there are minimally minimally covered soils often result in higher soil temperatures which increase moisture losses due to evaporation so how do we you know how are we going to mitigate that what are the things that we can do to keep that soil covered um and then when that soil is bare we increase that risk of of erosion right so what can we do to minimize that risk and then you know we a lot of times we talk about the benefits of cover crops and they have a lot a lot of benefits but when we have little or no precipitation the benefits of cover crops just like you know all of our other agricultural processes you know those benefits are reduced and so we have to maybe make changes to the type of mix that we're choosing or when we're terminating that mix so these are all things that need to be considered when we're thinking about uh and planning for drought so you know when we plan when we plan for drought um you know having a good drought plan in place can help can help our operation like Emily said you know knowing what you you're going to do and having that plan in place can help reduce stress um when we evaluate that operation we need we we want our drought plan to be part of a comprehensive conservation plan that considers what kind and of resources we have but also what's what condition are those resources in like where where's our starting point where's our benchmark what are we working with and then um our plan needs to consider how those crops forages or other resources have reacted to drought in the past right I mean this is not our first drought so we need to think about how did those resources that we have react to drought in the past so there are some things right there are some things that we know right the ability of a soil to capture and retain moisture over a growing season can can act like a bank account against you know which our crops and our forages can draw on right and so doing those type of things that kind of feel that feel that checkbook back up are going to help when we get into a low uh precipitation situation like what we're in now right we know that there are a number of conservation practices that can positively affect that water holding capacity of our soils I know um you know Kent has talked a number of times about all the soil health practices um that we can use to to increase that water holding capacity of our soil um improve the retention of that water and then reduce that vulnerability uh which reduces that vulnerability to drought right and and trying to increase that soil organic matter so that we have um more more water holding capacity um you know and that increased soil organic matter you know improves our soil structure it improves our porosity it improves our infiltration so when we think about those practices you know there's a there's a number of practices that we have but you know if we think about what are the big players right crop rotation when I looked at South Dakota's drought mitigation plan um following the 2012 the 2012 drought one of the big things that stood out was South Dakota as a state identified that the lack of diverse crops and lack of rotation was probably you know a very large vulnerability um of crop production in South Dakota right so we know that growing different kinds of crops that have different needs for moisture at slightly different times tends to spread out that risk right a diverse crop rotation um interrupts the weed and pest cycles it replenishes the you know uses and replenishes different nutrients and often results in increased yields in that traditional corn soybean crop right rotations um involving crops with higher crop residue can reduce our surface crusting and our water runoff and improve our soil moisture um for that next crop right and these ecosystem ecosystems you know that are diverse usually are more stable they tend to be able to withstand disturbances and they are better able to recover um than a less diverse system you know another key another key player is residue management right keeping the soil covered substantially lowers the soil temperature and reduces water loss from evaporation something that is extremely critical during times of drought um leaving last year's plant residue on the field um you know using practices like no till or or mulch till um can help um help the soil reduce soil temperatures and water loss um while building that soil organic matter um cover crops you know cover crops need to be used I mean we need to understand what what what we're doing and how how we're using them but cover crops can improve a farm's climate resilience they keep the soil covered and therefore uh cooler while increasing organic matter in the soil so we know that you know approximately one percent of organic matter in soil can hold as much as 20 gallons of water or 20 000 gallons of water you know per acre so you know those higher amounts of organic matter you know deeper in the soil profile are going to allow that soil to absorb and retain more moisture yes okay thank you Emily and Marcia appreciate it um the one last thing a few things that I wanted to close with um you know we've had a lot of discussions between farm service agency and NRCS and those types of things about you know programs like grassland CRP or land that is is highly erodible and those types of things and you know what do we do uh when we have a conservation plan in place and the drought happens and we we have uh we have plans um but even the best laid plans of course sometimes need to change um the biggest thing is to talk to your local NRCS and farm service agency office if you need to make changes to your your grazing plan or you need to make changes to a uh a highly erodible plan um you know the big thing is is that we can assist producers in walking through those changes that need to be made discuss what other plans or alternatives you have if you have a pasture that you typically rest for x amount of time and you need feel like you need to get into that um pasture earlier um and and not able to rest it as long make sure you're communicating that back um to the NRCS office and we can you know definitely help see what the risks are um maybe we you know need to evaluate if it's if you're better off culling um some livestock versus versus um you know grazing something more than we would want to so just and and document what your decisions are review and document what worked or didn't work it's going to be extremely important to document that for the next drought going forward and uh and that's what our our staff is there for is to assist producers um even when they need to make changes to their to their plan oh we do have some resources listed here and we will plan to send out this this PowerPoint presentation when we when Kathy sends out the minute so you'll have access to those uh websites um and then this is our contact information um again I'm a state resource conservationist Emily Helms is the range management specialist and Marsha Denneke is a state agronomist and we would be happy to visit with anybody that has any questions uh so that's all I have Jeannie if there's any question if there's no questions and I'll turn it back to you any questions at all okay thanks a bunch all right thank you um we appreciate the the information from you and your staff Jess so um since I don't see anybody coming off mute or raising their hands we will go ahead and move to the next item on the agenda and collect I will turn it over to you for discussion on CIG good morning everyone so the conservation innovation grant program is one where we can use um uh ideas that have been used by other people out in the field for uh technologies and but they those practices may or may not may not be part of our um NRCS toolbox for helping producers so it's an opportunity where we can um test those out and we can do some science and study those a little bit and then we can incorporate them to become part of our our suite of practices that are available through the farm bill programs so this year we did have a call for proposals we had a few applications and those applications are under review right now so not a whole lot to say yet but hopefully soon we'll have more to say so thank you all right thank you Collette are there any questions on the CIG program if not we'll continue down through some of our other programs out there um Jeff Vanderwilt I'll turn it over to you for an update on CIS good morning everybody I'm gonna apologize right off the start that doing a little work at home last night I got into something the old allergies are flaring up this morning so if I don't sound the best and we got a little sniffle going I apologize for that right off the get go but um I want to give you a little history on or go back in history a little bit on CIS here for a second um back in 2020 was the first year that we did a call for proposals for the conservation implementation strategy and we uh we got 16 proposals that first year and out of those 16 we we funded 12 of those and all 12 um have done something so far here in 2021 uh whether it's just some outreach uh trying to develop conservation plans and contracts with producers or just doing some of the initial inventory on some of the uh projects that they have going so we had again 16 total applications or proposals in 20 and we funded 12 now in 2021 we did another call for proposals last November and uh those uh the selections were made here in May and I kind of wanted to give you a quick update that we received um 36 uh proposals this year and we were able to fund 16 of those so I wanted you to know that uh I'm excited uh obviously we doubled the number of proposals we had um obviously we couldn't fund all of them due to um funding restraints and the amount of funding that we have available to us but uh I was very excited that we were able to have that many more proposals get submitted here in 2021 um as of right now the plan looks like we will do another call for proposals in November uh and kind of stick to our similar timeframe that we have in the past with a call for proposals in November and then the due date being late April or mid to late April so just kind of anticipate that coming back out and hopefully we will have a fair amount of funding to fund some proposals then in 2022 as well so as these projects continue to progress along I will continue to give you more of a detailed update obviously with this being really the first year that we've obligated any contracts there's not a whole lot of results to discuss just yet but we are hopefully you know obviously moving in that direction so I will at this point just be giving you updates on the number of proposals we've gotten and how many we've been able to fund um uh next on the list is going to be updating the websites that I can show you the location of all these new proposals uh we haven't gotten that done yet still working on that but uh where hopefully can get these uh 16 proposals loaded on our website on the map so that you can see where uh we're funding and what work we're doing um through these conservation implementation strategies so kind of stay tuned for that and hopefully I'll be able to continue to kind of give you just brief updates and and show you some more information as as time goes on so anybody have any questions on where we're at with this conservation implementation strategy okay with that I I'm going to skip over here a little bit in the agenda because if you look um I'm not next on the list but second on the list next to talk about the regional conservation partnership program and since I'm already on I'm just going to cover RCPP as well so um we've had some RCPP projects in the past we have one um that is still active that we're trying to wrap up with ducks unlimited in the prairie pothole region here between North Dakota and South Dakota uh and actually Minnesota a little bit so we're working on wrapping that one up that one should actually kind of more or less be finalized this year as far as all the funding goes uh and as that one gets wrapped up then we'll have um some details come out on on what they all accomplished once we get that wrapped up but that was a multi-state project and that one's getting close to wrapping up however I do want to bring up the fact that we have seven new projects um in the works right now here in South Dakota or we've got a couple multi-state ones but I'll cover the ones uh first that are um led by South Dakota so if it's a multi-state project South Dakota is the lead state so the first one is our our alternative funding arrangement which is kind of a different category through RCPP where we actually give the funds a majority of the funds to the partner to actually write the contracts and implement the practices versus how a lot of our normal RCPP works is the partner requests a MFA and and NRCS actually works to do the planning and the contracting and the implementation with these alternative funding arrangements uh more of that responsibility is placed on the partner so Ducks Unlimited was awarded an alternative funding arrangement and right now we're in the process of of getting that agreement in place um this one also covers the Prairie Pothole region of Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota and we've got Bruce on a little later on in the um program here to talk about that project a little bit so he'll cover that um specifics on what that DU project's going to accomplish but South Dakota is the lead state and we've submitted everything to get that agreement in place so hopefully we can get that approval here soon and then we'll be able to start doing some implementation work with Ducks Unlimited on that. The other one another one that we have was with the James River Water Development District um this one was actually a renewal there is a renewal option in RCPP as well as a project um comes close to its um finalization date or expiration date uh there is an option for that partner to do a shortened application uh and and apply for renewal which is basically kind of just an extension of the existing project maybe make a few updates or a few tweaks to it uh but Rocky with with James River Water Development District uh did put in for renewal and got that one funded as well um and that one too we are working on getting that agreement in place and Rocky will be on here towards the end too to discuss what that project's going to look like and and maybe discuss a little bit about the experience he had with his original project proposal and then the classic so the the other ones that we got funded through the normal RCPP process um we have one with the Minnehaha Conservation District that one uh Barry with the Minnehaha Conservation District there in East Water Development District East Dakota Water Development District um actually had a previous RCPP project they applied for a renewal they didn't get that so they put in for the classic and was able to uh get that project funded that way so we will continue to work with Barry uh on that project over there in the Big Sioux watershed and then the Belfoose River Watershed Partnership also put in for one and so that one the agreement's actually in place and we're working to get things set up to um start doing some contract obligation and and applications and those kinds of things so that one's that one's moving along really well um and then a couple that we've just started working on these were kind of recently funded ones uh we did we got one funded with the Roberts Conservation District up there in the northeast corner of the state and then we also had one funded with the World Wildlife Fund that one actually covers parts of western South Dakota and the Sand Hills in Nebraska so that is another multi-state one we'll be working with Nebraska on that but South Dakota is the lead state and then the last one um Audubon had one funded that one covers North Dakota South Dakota and Montana and then that particular case Audubon actually has North Dakota as the lead state I don't have much of an update on the Audubon one since North Dakota is the lead state um I haven't heard how the agreement process is going from North Dakota yet but I would assume that it's progressing along as well uh the last thing I would tell you is that we had four new applications for alternative funding arrangements similar to that one that DU got funded earlier that I talked about we had four more uh partners applied for the AFAs roughly I would guess that we're probably going to have two of those funded out of the four they received I believe it was 36 or 37 something on that order nationwide and out of those 36 or 37 South Dakota had four of them so kind of my anticipation is I think we'll get two of them funded out of that out of the four just because they they're going to fund about 15 projects total um so I'm kind of anticipating us getting two of the four funded so we're just waiting on kind of the official word or the official announcement on which one of our four will will get approved so as soon as we hear something back on that we'll give you an update on that as well so that's kind of where we're sitting with RCPP um you know I guess if I'm going to point anything out to you guys just to make sure that you're aware this is all additional dollars being brought into the state to work on specific projects so these are you know in the past these were equip and CSP dollars now these these are RCPP has become its own program in the 2018 Farm Bill so these do not diminish from our equip or CSP dollars we receive so these are all additional funds um that we receive in order to do conservation work here in South Dakota um unless it's a multi-state project but even still um at least a portion of those dollars are coming to South Dakota so it's very exciting uh you know we've had three total three four total projects in the past um and over the about the last 12 months we've gotten seven new ones funded and probably two more coming so in about the span of 12 to 16 months we really increased the RCPP um uh funding here in South Dakota so I'm very excited about that obviously that leads to more work but we've got all great partners that we're working with on these projects and I'm really excited to uh to get to working on them and seeing what kind of outcomes we can create with these projects so that's kind of my quick update on RCPP um if you guys got any questions uh be happy to take those now as well um maybe the last thing I would say is I would anticipate another announcement uh for RCPP classic funding to come this fall don't know exactly when but I would guess September Octoberish somewhere in there so we'll see what happens there any questions on RCPP and kind of where we're at won't we're up to all right uh I will uh turn this over to Derek Derek Oliver is our um acting equip program manager most of you know Jen works uh Jen is actually doing a detail of her own um and so Derek is filling in uh for Jen while Jen has gone on detail so Derek's going to give you the equip update this this quarter so Derek I'll turn it over to you all righty thank you good morning I'm going to share my screen here real quick okay so um I'm going to start with our general funds here um basically you see up here in the upper left we're going to start with the strike force funds um and the individual breakdowns for each tribe uh you can see we have um two left here one in Standing Rock one in Pine Ridge that we have yet to to fund other than that we're pretty much wrapped up there um animal waste management um beginning farmer rancher and our socially disadvantaged fund pools you can see we've uh pretty much allocated those funds already um getting down to our watershed um fund pools you can see we've um allocated all those funds so in total here for our general funds uh we've allocated 12.15 million dollars we assessed uh 580 applications we funded 199 entirely out of uh this fund pool we have another 186 here that we've either partially funded um in the in other fund pools or completely funded in other fund pools so um that's kind of the breakdown of the general fund pools I'll move on here to the the CIS projects that we have going we have 16 of these um right now we have 12 of them that we're um we're making pretty good progress on we have four that we have not uh still in the ranking stages on those so we haven't allocated anything in those yet so um you know getting here we have 67 assessments made um 37 uh funded here seven either partially or entirely funded in other fund pools getting down to the last page here um this is going to be the the national initiative funds so um the NWQI the national water quality initiative um we have uh quite a bit left there we are going to have a second sign up for that so um you know this money will um we'll be spending some more of that the Sage of Grouse uh we've spent that honeybee um we didn't end up getting enough applications to allocate all that funds we did turn 86 000 uh back to national headquarters for those you know that's kind of the breakdown on the soil health uh you know we do have little funds left there um the wildlife or the windy fire um we are in the progress of spending and allocating those right now so um once those are fun we'll kind of have an idea of what we need to request for for the divide fire in the dry creek fire funds so as an overall summary um you know we we're gonna allocate 18.85 million dollars for equip right now we have uh 17.7 of that allocated currently when we're all said and done we'll uh fund 276 contracts right now we have 251 of those allocated so we have about 25 to go so um yeah we got 94 percent of our funds allocated as of right now so are there any questions all right here none I guess uh Christine is gonna talk on uh conservation the conservation stewardship program thank you yes good morning and thank you uh for those of you that don't know me my name is Christy Grant uh district conservationist out of the assistant office and I will be providing you with Joyce's quarterly CSP report so to start off we'll go with the fiscal 21 CSP classics the application deadline was March 31st uh we had just over 1,300 applications the initial allocation was 7,850,000 April 1st fund request we re we received additional 2,260,000 with those combining funds we were able to pre-approve 71 applications the obligation deadline is set for September 3rd uh we're just shy of halfway there with 34 obligated as of today um if you are following along with Joyce's report you'll see she has listed out individual fund pools in their initial allocation I'm not going to read you the list of fund pools in their allocations but I will provide you with the number of applications currently sitting at pre-approved for each fund pool so we'll start off with the beginning former statewide fund pool 13 are pre-approved social disadvantage again is statewide six at pre-approved are organic is also statewide and that is one moving to the Brookings area the Big Sioux resource unit has four Cato has four Glacier Lakes has two Upper James has five and Vermillion has four moving central the pier area central Plains resource unit has three lower James has four lower Missouri has three men Missouri has three north Missouri has two River Hills has four and moving west our rapid city area the Hills resource unit has two northwest has three the prairie has two southwest has four and the three rivers has three we received additional funds from North Dakota in the form of the RCPP CSP prairie pothole working lands funds we were able to pre-approved 13 additional CSP applications under those RCPP funds uh the July 1st fund request I'm assuming we have not heard back for the additional funds we requested there and to wrap it up with our fiscal 22 renewals the application deadline was April 7th there was 344 applications those included all of our fiscal 17 CSP contracts that wanted to pursue a renewal obligation will be set for the first quarter of fiscal 22 and we have not received our initial allocations for that so with that that wraps up Joyce's quarterly CSP and I'll take any questions if there isn't thank you Christina it doesn't look like we have any questions right now so I will move on down to Brandon Cotke for an update on ASAP and Waterbank all right thanks Jeannie good morning everybody I'm Brandon Cotke and the easement program manager let's go through our numbers here for the easements to Waterbank for the year hopefully you guys can all see my screen here overall for this year we had 92 applications it's a little bit of an increase over last year so it's kind of good to see a little bit more interest in there where we're at right now we've have made our tentative offers to eight landowners at this time we're looking at right around 612 acres for just under $3.5 million so our goal is to have those obligated here in early August we're still kind of working through some of our normal review procedures with these but that's kind of where we sit with that as you can see it looks like we are doing one even that is a 30 year to a permanent conversion and then the remainder of those seven offers are for permanent easements we did have two ALE applications as well we're still working through the program agreement aspect of those you can see there we had about 993 acres is roughly about what we were showing there so it's been a pretty good year for the easement so far we're working through it had a little bit shortened time frame again this year but the crew was able to get through it pretty good so if we go over to Waterbank we are just in the process of wrapping that stuff up as well we did get a significant increase in our funds this year for the Waterbank program between the North Dakota South Dakota and Minnesota there's only four million dollars between the three states I've seen the last few years we're only getting around 400,000 roughly and this year we were just under 900,000 so that gave us the ability to fund right around 20 applications for real close to 1800 acres so there was a pretty significant increase I guess in Waterbank this year as well so that was really good to see you that's what I got for you folks this morning on easements in Waterbank if anyone has any questions for me I got some time all right thank you Brandon next on the agenda we have an update from D. Cobbock on wetlands and H.E.L. compliance you bet hello everyone my name is D. Cobbock assistant state conservationist for compliance share some stuff here Deake most folks should have the handouts in their packet that came with the agenda if you can't get that to pull up yeah I'm not sure what my issue is I just shared it earlier with some of my team members so anyway I won't go over it basically our wetland workload it's looking at 569 data we got nine in progress 13 completed 25 received then our 1026s this is all from October 1st 2020 267 in progress 930 completed and then we've received 901 so we're a little bit less than normal about every year since 2014 we received about 1400 and so I don't know that we're going to actually get all the way to 1400 requests this year by October 1st but it could change just a little bit the highly rotable land workload in South Dakota and basically I have the information from up to July 15th so there's 1269 completed 66 are outstanding and then there's 621 that are considered new breakings I just go ahead and track that information so that's what I have on that when you look at through the maps on different things here when you're looking at received the southeast still tends to have the higher number received 1020 6 requests Hutchison and Turner Hutchison seems to be going strong as it has for the last 10 years certified wetland determinations completed obviously kind of matches the numbers that are out there when you look at you know the age of our 1026s is I mean we're pretty well in control for the most part knock on wood I mean most of them are sitting in that two to three months and then there's just a handful they're sitting there in that six months and that's usually tied to this procedurals you know dealing with when people want to do field visits or when they have time to meet with us so that's not too bad at all right in progress you know like I said that always seems to match a lot of what we have going as far as where the highest number requests are at you know we are getting a few more west river it's not dealing with tiling it's usually dealing with the spring development or some kind of planning planning operation there so but anyway that's what I have for an update on that are there any questions at all I'll turn it back to Jeannie all right thanks deke so next on the agenda we're going to go back to collect Kessler for an update on where we're at with our conservation collaboration grants and cooperative agreements thank you thanks Jeannie so again this report will be rather short we did have the copper proposals that closed in June and we received a nice batch proposals thanks everyone for doing that and then we had a nice good size review committee for a multi-discipline committee from across the state go through the proposals and scored them out of how best might they help NRCS how can these proposals the results of these proposals help us to complete our mission of the helping people help the land and carrying out the farm bill responsibilities so as they went through them we have some really excellent things in there that's the good news unfortunately the bad news is our budget isn't as strong as we thought it might be as we anticipated it so we're only able to fund so far just a few of those so we're starting to work through the list and I guess we'll just see what we can do and hopefully hopefully some more funding will come our way before it gets to be the cut-off dates but right now I don't have a lot to tell or share and tell until we have some more till things are in place so but please know everyone who contributed to our proposal that we do appreciate your work and some of the ideas are really good ideas and maybe what we should do is look at how you know maybe there's another way we can work do this so maybe we want to continue this conversation and at least you know continue it forward for next year as well so that's pretty much all I have for the CCCA and CCGA until next time so thank you all right thank you Colette any questions or comments on that process or where we're moving with that all right quiet bunch this morning um so the next item that we have on the agenda we did this last quarterly meeting as well was to ask some of our partners to give a report on the agreement that they have in place with us and what um what they're providing to NRCS and NRCS is providing to them in order to help build those relationships and get more conservation on the ground so the first one that we're going to hear from this morning is Bruce Toy with Ducks Unlimited morning and morning everybody else can you hear me okay I can thank you oh perfect perfect I'm gonna go ahead and uh try to share my screen here all right can you all see that hearing nothing I'll assume so uh great so yeah uh I thought I just uh uh touch on our RCPP project that that Jeff talked about earlier uh we were awarded through the alternative funding arrangement when this was first announced uh back in early 2020 we thought it was a pretty uh great opportunity to to utilize RCPP as he said and bring additional dollars and uh into our highest priority area the prairie pothole region uh so the title of proposal is scaling soil health in the prairie pothole region uh I'm really designed to help uh you know producers incorporate and enhance their soil health management practices uh on those important prairie pothole habitats really it's a great way to help retain our intact grassland and wetland habitat on on working lands and in South Dakota North Dakota and in Montana uh I really uh you know we understand soil health is a great way to add diversity to the landscape and and help make our farms and ranches more resilient to fluctuations in markets and climate and also add you know biodiversity to our to our landscape as well uh and really uh you know these these practices are critical for for water management for various purposes when we first started writing this proposal uh of course the big issue then was was how do we how do we manage all of this water on the landscape and here we are now less than you know 18 months later it's how do I how do I get more water into my crops and grass and and really uh soil health is is is is the answer to both of those by by adding uh you know organic matter to our soils and increasing soil structure and in water storage capacity it's it's the answer to both so uh a good answer for a lot of things we're looking to accomplish in our highest priority area uh just a timeline uh we started putting this together and submitted a proposal in in May of 2020 uh we were awarded last fall in September and as as Jeff mentioned we've been working on getting that initial agreement put together for a couple of months here uh being a new program the first time it's been put together in this area there's been a few uh learning curves to accomplish but I think we're getting getting close to having that done here in the near future and I'm optimistic we'll be moving forward here in the fall of 2021 getting agreements put together in practices in place really the the crux of it is is is looking at expanding opportunities to improve soil health integrate perennial species and in the cropping system and improving improving grazing infrastructure for you know rotational grazing on on both grasslands and in crop lands on working lands of course the bulk of it will be uh in fact 70% of the award is specifically for financial assistance to to farmers and ranchers will be using the NRCS equip model for for the bulk of that following those practice standards for the practices we're looking at and uh you know the existing RCPP equip payment rates you know to outline what those what those reimbursement rates will look like now but there's also two two other you know important components to this project uh second is is collecting environmental financial and social data to help quantify some of the outcomes that that that will result from this we want to take this opportunity to to learn a lot about what what's being accomplished by by some of these projects um you know first uh looking at things like ecosystem services uh how do these projects lead to uh biodiversity uh gains and how do they impact water infiltration water storage capacity sediment nutrient runoff wildlife habitat uh total system carbon accumulation there's a lot of a lot of things that that we uh we we assume uh are positive outcomes we want to add some add some data that and and provide some local uh examples in this part of the country on uh to demonstrate success with these with these projects also on look at producer services how do you know how do these uh how do we quantify gains uh in yields uh net profit margins return on investment uh really focus on the economics of practice uh adoption with these with these practices we're looking at how do they pencil out in the long run uh really try to identify some you know some pre and post scenarios and what does it look like at the beginning and as we're developing these agreements over a over a five-year term you know how have how have things changed from the producer and and landscape standpoint also I'll look at a little bit you know at at social implications of these practices you know try to identify what what are those barriers that that producers are finding to to adopting some of these practices and and what really resonates with farmers and ranchers and help us identify what what works uh that that's best for du and it's good for nrcs at the same time uh third component here will be uh you know focusing on education and outreach if we can if we can you know help help producers implement these practices and then connect them uh with with advanced education and mentorship opportunities I think there's a you know there's a strong potential to help you know help help the program grow scale help scale up the adoption not only you know on that particular farm and ranch but maybe their their neighbor will take notice and and that's how that's how things grow by by demonstrating success so um South Dakota has a word blessed to have a strong you know mentorship network already across the state with with producers that are that are doing a great job with these practices we can connect uh you know a a newer uh grow word with with that mentorship network and help help develop the next generation that would be uh fantastic and we want to focus on the success stories that we can develop with with these projects you know try to have field events and workshops and and and help demonstrate local success with these projects so for for financial assistance and actual uh projects on the ground uh focusing a lot on the soil health system uh these four practices are our equip practices those are the the equip plan numbers on on the right uh but really focusing on on crop land systems to reduce tillage incorporate cover crops uh increase our crop diversity uh and incorporate livestock and prescribe grazing on on on cropland and and grass on grazing systems so um of course one of the limiting factors with with livestock grazing is the infrastructure that's needed on those crop land systems so there will be opportunities for cost share for things like fence uh and livestock water development on on on cropland acres too again we want to emphasize incorporating perennial species uh into into cropping systems as well so equip practices like range planting and hay and pasture planting will be available uh to help restore some of those marginally productive uh cropland acres back back into grass uh and incorporate those into uh into some working land system be it a grazing system or or a hay uh forage system like that one of the unique flexibilities we have with this rc bruce you're muted is that better yes and it just happened about 15 seconds ago so we weren't listening to you ah i'm not sure how that happened i wasn't even touching my mouth anyway looking to restore perennial species on on marginally productive cropland um and one of the flexibilities we have with with rc pp rc pp is integrating uh rental options as well so looking at a at a crp type model uh for producers that are that are restoring grass you know it can take uh one to three years to for that grass to fully establish and at that time you know produce producers may not be be generating any income on on those acres and that can be a a detriment and they may uh may not have uh want to give it the full time it needs especially in drier periods right now so we can give an annual income during that that grass establishment phase um that that's a win win and hopefully uh you know let that let that um grass establishment fully develop before being incorporated into a a grazing or hay management system so of course there'll be infrastructure there for for livestock grazing as well uh on both restored grassland acres and and uh existing adjacent grassland acres at the same time uh now now with these uh applications we'll have a a a ranking scheme and this will be similar to some of the previous rc pp systems we've had uh you know our our priorities are areas with the highest wetland density so we'll be using uh existing models that help us identify that we call these thunderstorm maps uh basically areas with higher wetland densities uh I think there's a lot of potential there to help improve um soil health and improve man water management in those landscapes uh so applications in those areas that are that are reds and yellows will rank higher than areas that are in those lighter and darker blues uh similarly uh applications that have more more practices will rank higher as well if it's a comprehensive soil health system that has five or six practices that will rank higher than an application but just just one or two um and as we mentioned the you know our our goals to collect data and and provide local demonstrations if producers are willing to cooperate with those then and that's going to help help them rank higher in that in that application application process as well uh do you couldn't do this alone by you know by any means so we were very fortunate to have a you know a broad diverse uh group of partners come together uh you know local um state and federal agencies um non-profit organizations for profit organizations um and and producer led coalitions that will all help us in varying aspects of this proposal here uh really a great coalition of partners that come together and brought over over nine million dollars in partner contributions to get this project on the ground but just kind of the general process how we how we plan to roll this out and as Jeff mentioned excuse me this is there's still a few details to be figured out here but this is this is kind of what we're thinking uh we'll be soliciting and ranking applications hopefully this fall uh with the rcpp model we have a little more flexibility uh to have uh things like batching dates and sign up periods uh and that's one thing that we want to help improve upon instead of having just uh one single annual batching date we want to be able to facilitate applications as as rapidly as we can uh kind of depend on on the workload there what might have to be a little flexible on how we roll that out but you know ideally uh what you know what I'm thinking is we'll have a you know a pretty strict you know guideline for for a ranking criteria and if a producer walks in and and is able to check all those boxes uh then we can proceed with that agreement you know right right then in there if the workload gets to be pretty high then we might have to go to a you know a monthly or quarterly batching period or something like that so we'll have to be a little flexible in that in that process but once they once they do meet that criteria we'll start uh our biologists and agronomists will start developing a conservation strategy identify what they want to do and and where they want to do it and then we will coordinate with NRCS staff to ensure that uh both the producer and the site uh all all fit within USDA guidelines for for eligibility if they pass that we'll start working on an agreement between the landowner and and Ducks Unlimited as Jeff mentioned that'll be a little different than traditional RCPP or the agreement has been between NRCS and the landowner so this will be a little different model but as I noted we want to kind of say fit the similar guidelines with with similar practice standards and payment rates after that the producer will implement the practices as they are outlined in the agreement and then Ducks Unlimited will reimburse the producer as as those practices are completed and then we will seek reimbursement from from the NRCS as we provide verification that those practice standards have been met and then I'll probably be done on a quarterly schedule um throughout the year. A broad overview I just want to provide some contact contact information for myself and the rest of uh staff in South Dakota we have two biologists and two agronomists that will be doing most of the legwork with this program but if you have any questions feel free to follow up with me give me holler or if you know of any producers that that may fit the bill or be interested in the program feel free to let them know or or provide us some contact information but with that I'll certainly be here for some questions. All right thank you Bruce. I appreciate the the presentation are there any questions or comments? Then the next um partner we have on here Rocky Knippling was going to visit with us a little bit on things going on with the James River Watershed Development District. Rocky are you with us this morning? All right. Yes I am trying to get my picture to come up here. Well again this is Rocky Knippling and thank you for inviting me to speak today about our RCPP project. I have to apologize I had some good drone videos and maps that I wanted to share with you today but I've been in Missoula Montana with my daughter the last two and a half weeks helping her recover from a surgery and I didn't have access to them also perfectly good and the bad of teleworking so I wasn't able to share them with you today. Again I'm Rocky Knippling I'm a coordinator with the South Central 319 Project and South Central and Southeast South Dakota. We are sponsored by the James River Water Development District. Our main task or goal is to improve water quality in our project area with a pool of funds that is distributed by South Dakota DANR. This project area includes James River from North and Mitchell to the Missouri the South Missouri from Tramblin to the Yankton area the Vermillion Watershed area and in Western South Dakota we have a large area the Kepahaw River drainage and Ponca Creek and Southern Tripp and Southern Gregory counties. It's a large area and it encompasses about eight million acres and our team includes Matt Cavani and Shane Durand Lowe and myself. This broad area left us with many good projects that we couldn't fund every year due to a lack of funds and the 319 process was getting more competitive every year so when the RCPP came out we applied for that in 2016 and received funding the same year. We wanted to use the funds to target water quality and install practices that would have a direct impact on that as well. We were able to utilize ranking questions and with the help of Jen Wurz and Jeff Vander Wilt we were able to come up with a screening tool that would help us break the highs, mediums and lows out and it worked. Our first batching or ranking we had was in 2018 and the total dollars of applications was more than what we had as a project 2.7 million but the process worked. The questions and the screening tools sorted out our better projects and we were able to fund like 1.2, 1.3 million in the first go-round. Within a year we had another ranking and at that time we gave out the remaining dollars. We had lots of applications, quality applications for that. So at the end of the day we were able to install practices that met our goals and objectives. We were very satisfied with the accomplishments that this project did as well. Our sponsors were very satisfied too. So it was a win for everybody. A win for the producers, a win for us, a win for our sponsors. But we were left with three years left on our grant and no money. And then the caveat came out in the RCP program where you could do a request for renewal where they would inject more funds into your project. So we applied for that in 2019 but it was a very highly competitive round of funding and we didn't get selected. So we tried it again about a year ago in 2020 and we were successful in receiving another 2.7 million to match the original funding and a five-year extension. So the basis is we'd be able to keep our framework from the original project and this money would just be added to it. We wouldn't have to do the classic renewal and try to start a new project. The application for the renewal went better than the original application. There's an RCPP portal now that has been developed to make things easier for us to keep track and fill out the forms. And we are currently, we got selected in September I believe and we're currently just finishing up the negotiation phase like Jeff said earlier. And we wish this part hand fell during the pandemic with the office shutdowns and internet connections trying to work from home and all the things that go with that. But it's been successful so far and I think we're about at the last step and then we will go to negotiations again to see if we can keep some of our original documents for the second go-around. There's going to be some challenges as they put before us that making things fit with the new CART program is going to be a little testy at times but I believe we can get through it. It was such a quality project the first go-around I hope we can repeat it this time. We had lots of satisfied producers and we got some excellent projects put on the ground and able to bring some new people to the arena that hadn't dealt with Equip before so I believe all in all it was very successful. It's been a journey for sure this last year but times like this just inspire us to keep our eyes on the prize and that is to help producers help the environment and make efficient use of the taxpayer dollars we spend. I would highly recommend any of the groups out there to go through this process. It is a good funding source for putting quality projects on the ground and it's not real easy sometimes but it can be dealt with to make things fit your goals and objectives. Without I'd like to thank you and if there's any questions I'll take them now. I'm just going to say a quick thanks to Rocky and the Bruce for talking about their projects today and I hope to bring some of these other RCPP project coordinators to the next couple of state texts just to kind of give you guys an update from their perspective and kind of let you know how the whole RCPP program is going and obviously opportunities for producers and landowners out there so thank you both for taking time today to give us an update. Yes I would echo that thank you both for being here and providing those updates for the rest of the group. Are there any questions or comments from anybody else on the call things that you'd like to discuss or share here with the group today? This is Mark Norton with South Dakota Game of Fish and Parks. I just had a question for Rocky. What kind of projects were you guys funding with your RCPP? We were doing projects that like I said directly impacted water quality limiting the amount of access that livestock had to streams. We did feedlot projects. We put cover crops on some highly rotables grounds. We planted grass, farm ground back to grass and mainly it was like pipeline fence for the grazing part to try to help deter cattle from being in the streams as much. Other questions or comments from anybody on the call? Related to anything we've covered or other topics you'd like to touch on before we adjourn today. All right I'm not seeing anybody else come off mute or raise their hands so I would just like to thank everybody for calling in today and for those of you that presented we appreciate the information shared with the group and I know there's a lot of different things going on out there across the state and we just appreciate everybody's involvement and input. So with that I guess we will wrap up the meeting thank you again and take care we'll send we'll set up the next quarterly meeting and get that out to everybody.