Technical Assistance

Several of Arizona’s Conservation Districts and AACD have been awarded grant monies through Technical Assistance grants from the NACD since 2018. These funds support contractors to provide technical assistance to the Districts in order to support local NRCS conservationists in the field and the office. The professionals contracted to assist with crucial conservation tasks have helped producers get conservation work on the ground through programmatic support, archeological clearances, and technical assistance.

Program Support

Additional staff members were contracted to provide NRCS field offices assistance with a range of tasks including greeting customers, general office administration, NRCS-producer contracts support, and outreach & education of NRCS programs to producers and districts.
Technical Support

Technical assistance is provided by contracted professionals to assist with cultural resource surveys, field surveys, inventories and data collection, GIS mapping, GPS, and conservation plan writing associated with NRCS program requirements.

Conservation Planning

Conservation planning assistance includes conducting Resource Needs Assessments and writing Conservation Action Plans. RNAs are based on scientific information gathered through a diverse group of stakeholders. CAPs identify resource concerns to be addressed in the protection and conservation of natural resources within a district and/or watershed. Together these documents provide a comprehensive evaluation of the condition of the natural resource base that will serve as a platform for making decisions about local priorities and policies for conservation programs at the local level.
Cultural Resource Surveys

When a producer seeks to implement conservation practices on state or federal lease lands, they are likely to need a cultural resource survey. A conservation practice can be anything from creating livestock and wildlife waters to rebuilding a fence destroyed by fire or installing solar. Anything that will cause ground disturbance is required to undergo a cultural resource survey. As of August 2023, 124 surveys had been completed across ~20,000 acres.
Local Work Groups

Through Local Work Group meetings, Conservation Districts bring all local area stakeholders together to identify resource concerns and develop solutions and partnerships based on those concerns and local knowledge. Conservation District Boards gather these concerns, listen to what producers, landowners, and other stakeholders have to say, and then submit a list of resource concerns and recommended priorities to the NRCS and other federal and state entities.