by the Middle Park Conservation District
When grant opportunities arise, Middle Park Conservation District (MPCD) offers cost-share programs to landowners to improve their land. For the first time ever, MPCD was able to fund two separate cost-share programs in the same year! Each program came with $25,000 in cost-share funds. Thus, MPCD’s grant funds paid for nearly half of the $101,000 worth of work done on the ground between these two programs.
The first cost-share program was funded by the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s Drought Resiliency Competitive Grant Program and was used to help eleven ag producers in Grand and Summit Counties improve their irrigation water management and efficiency. Grant funds reimbursed landowners for the cost of installing irrigation water control structures such as gated pipe, irrigation diversions, check and turnout structures, water pumps and hose, as well as parshall flumes. On average landowners can expect to get 10-15% increase in irrigation efficiency over the coming years.
The second cost-share program was funded by the Colorado State Conservation Board’s Matching Grant Program. For this cost-share program, MPCD partnered with the Grand County Wildfire Council (GCWC) to fund GCWC’s free Community Chipping Days and Pre-fire Fuels Reduction Cost-Share Program. Thanks to MPCD’s funding, GCWC was able to reimburse six landowners for wildfire mitigation and fuels reduction on their land. Additionally, MPCD matching grant dollars helped fund one of GCWC’s five chipping days this summer. Every acre mitigated reduces our county’s wildfire risk and gets us one step closer to becoming fire adapted community.
The Middle Park Conservation District thanks the Colorado Department of Agriculture and the Colorado State Conservation Board for the support of our efforts to improve irrigation water efficiency, mitigate wildfire risk, and promote conservation throughout Middle Park (Grand and Summit Counties).
For more information on the Middle Park Conservation District, visit www.middleparkcd.com.
For more information on the Grand County Wildfire Council, visit www.bewildfireready.org
