2005 Environmental Quality Incentive Program

Local Work Group Summary for Datil

Introduction:

The Datil Field Office is located in Datil New Mexico in Catron County.  It provides assistance to the Quemado and Salado Soil and Water Conservation Districts with a combined total of not quite 4.1 million acres.  About 39% is Federal lands and 61% is private and state lands, almost all lands are rangeland or grazeable woodland.  The Datil Field Office covers the northern and eastern parts of Catron County, the southern part of Cibola County and the western part of Socorro County, topography is varied with elevations ranging from 4500 feet to 10,000 feet with much of the area above 6,000 feet.  Soils vary from deep well drained loams and clays to shallow gravelly to rocky soils on mountain sides.  The precip. Ranges from 10 in. in lower elevations to over 20 in. in the higher elevations, with annual precip. figures varying widely from year to year.

Vegetation ranges from black and blue grama to mountain brush/ mtn. muhly, pine dropseed, and in the higher elevations Ponderosa pine, mtn. grasses.  The predominant use of land at the present time is still ranching with more and more emphasis placed on hunting as a source of income.  There is also a component of land being sold as subdivisions in the areas that contain suitable numbers of tree species.

Local Work Group:

The Quemado and Salado SWCDs held a joint Local Work Group Meeting on Nov.  2nd at 1:00 PM at the NRCS office in Datil NM.  Invitations were sent out to Federal, State, and County agencies with twelve participants attending, representing both SWCD’s, NMDA, Extension Service, USFS, BLM, and NRCS and provided assistance in developing the plan.

Priority Resource Concerns:

The local work group chose to keep the same priorities as in FY 2003 with water quality/water quantity (brush control), soil erosion as their highest priority resource concerns, and proposed higher cost share rates of 75% for brush control practices and 60% for erosion control practices, to encourage participants to work on these objectives.  They also felt that erosion control and brush control are expensive practices that have a long lived return to the participant and also have large off site benefits that would justify a higher cost share rate.  Water development was the third resource concern. The local work group does not wish to restrict landowners from addressing other resource concerns under the EQIP program.

Funding Considerations:

The Local Work Group would allocate monies received by the two Districts based on the same acreage figures used to determine the state allocation to the Datil Field Office, the funds would be split 55% to rangeland practices and 45% to all other practices.  These funds would be interchangeable if not otherwise obligated; funds would be interchangeable between districts if not obligated also.

Cost Docket:

The Catron County Cost Docket was reviewed and accepted, with changes made to reflect the increased costs to most items due to higher fuel prices.

Please refer to the links for the cost docket and eligible practices to view the final approved practices, cost share rates and component costs.

Eligible Practices:

The Local Work Group reviewed the NM Approved Practice List for EQIP and would recommend using it as is.  See Datil Field Office, FY 2005 EQIP eligible practices and rates list.

Please refer to the links for the cost docket and eligible practices to view the final approved practices, cost share rates and component costs.

Cost Share Rates, Incentive Payments and Caps:

The Local Work Group recommends an Incentive Payment for cooperators planning a prescribed burn on private and state lands.  The payment is based on a need to defer the pasture from all grazing by domestic animals during the growing season prior to and after the burn to allow for sufficient fuels to carry a fire and then to allow for adequate re-growth after it.  The local work group suggests using the USDA Forest Service rate of 13.40 per animal unit month.  Payment would be made upon completion of the prescribed burn.

An incentive payment of $8.28/acre has been established for Prescribed Grazing (528a) in association with Prescribed Burning (338).

Please refer to the links for the cost docket and eligible practices to view the final approved practices, cost share rates and component costs.

Ranking Criteria:

Please refer to the links for ranking criteria to view the final approved criteria.

Timelines and Evaluation Periods:

All applications and any supporting documentation must be submitted by January 28, 2005.

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