The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources invites responses from Massachusetts farmers who own or operate farm land under the Agricultural Preservation Restriction (“APR”) Program who wish to participate in Round 3 of the Stewardship Assistance and Restoration on APRs Program (“Program”). The purpose of the Program is to address stewardship or restoration issues on farmland resources in order to maximize productive agricultural use of the protected resource.
Funding of up to $25,000, with a 15% match, may be available for identified improvements that will help restore or enhance the protected land resources on an APR farm property or to conduct a survey of the boundary between an APR property and abutting unrestricted land to resolve an issue that is of concern to the Department.
Eligible uses of funds include contracted labor or equipment rental costs to clear land or reclaim inactive fields back to active cropland use such as: clearing vegetation, removing rocks or stumps, cutting back grown in field edges, or reseeding or applying soil or crop amendments to inactive cropland or pastureland to bring it back into production. Funding may be also be used to restore farm resources that have been negatively impacted by flooding, erosion, storms, tornadoes and other natural disasters, or for surveying costs as identified above.
The deadline for applications is March 20, 2017 and all projects must be completed by June 30, 2017.
Find the application here: http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/agr/about/divisions/sara.html