The Forestry and Wildlife Program specializes in partnering with organizations and agencies, helping private landowners and others with stewardship of their land. Our primary payoff has been the furthering of our mission, but since 2004, the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) has contracted with us, providing a financial payment as well.

We help NRCS accomplish its goals by providing forest landowners with technical assistance. They can then sign up for and complete forestry and wildlife improvement practices for cost sharing payment through the USDA Farm Bill programs. The County Extension Educators in Forest Resources work with County Conservation Districts and NRCS staff to help landowners determine which practices are right for them, develop applications, and assist with layout and design.

We also help with outreach and education. This agreement has been renewed a number of times and proved so successful, this year we developed a new, additional agreement and we were able to hire Emma Carcagno as a wildlife program assistant.

Though New Hampshire is geographically small, its NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) leads the nation in allocating resources to address forest land environmental concerns. Recognizing this, last year our cooperative effort received the "Two Chiefs Award." Our agreement was one of the first (if not the first) of its kind in the country. Other state forestry agencies and NRCS now use this approach and we have shared our contract with them.

Visit our "financial assistance for landowners" page to review the outreach assistance we provide through this agreement.