Announcing the FY 2026 Tri District EQIP Local Fund Pool

The Bennington County Conservation District is thrilled to announce the opening of the application period and technical assistance for the Bennington County Agroforestry and Flood Resilience EQIP Local Fund Pool.

The goal of this year's Local Fund Pool is simple: to promote and incentivize the completion of Agroforestry and Flood Resilience projects in Bennington County on 1000 acres of private land by 2035. This goal was formulated during a three year long and continiously ongoing public engagement process with our partners at the Poultney-Mettowee Natural Resource Conservation District, the Rutland Natural Resource Conservation District, the Natural Resource Conservation Service Rutland Field Office, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, the Merck Forest and Farmland Center, the Vermont Community Foundation and most importantly our community.

Your voices are having an impact. 

From 2019 to 2024, the total amount of EQIP Farm Bill funds, which support the Local Fund Pool, awarded $250,802.00 to land stewards in Bennington County. 

In 2025, we're on track to award over $400,000.

For 2026, the Local Fund Pool has $250,000 in funding to help us meet this goal. 

If you are a private land steward in Bennington County, here's how to take advantage of this opportunity. 

1. Review the 'EQIP Right for Me' and the Approved Practices List pages and decide which practices could help you better help the land, diversify your farm or homestead, or build watershed-scale resilience on the individual level. Our team selected six primary practices, each with its own list of supporting practices: Alley Cropping, Silvopasture, Forest Farming, Hedgerow Planting, Windbreak/Shelterbelt Establishment, and Riparian Forest Buffer.
2. Click this link to schedule a virtual meeting or phone call with NRCD Staff to discuss your potential project and determine your eligibility: https://calendly.com/michael-bccd/technical-assistance-request.
3. Schedule a site visit with NRCD staff before August 15, 2025, to conduct an initial in-field assessment of the project and complete all the necessary forms linked to this page by following this link: https://calendly.com/michael-bccd/site-visit.
4. File the forms with your NRCD, the Farm Service Agency, and the Natural Resource Conservation Service at the Rutland USDA Service Center.

This is the culmination of all the input we gathered with our partners at the Poultney-Mettowee Natural Resource Conservation District, the Rutland Natural Resource Conservation District, the Natural Resource Conservation Service Rutland Field Office, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, the Merck Forest and Farmland Center, the Vermont Community Foundation and most importantly our community.

Want to learn more? Attend your local open house:

Please fill out your email under the town where you plan on attending. Final locations are to be determined.