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I'd like to put together a webinar for Permies on utilizing existing Federal, State, and Non-profit farm planning & planting grants to completely fund, or at least support the Permaculture Design & Implememtation process.
I know Austin Unruh of www.treesforgraziers.com has gotten many of his silvopasture projects entirely funded, and there must be more out there!
Over the last few years I’ve gotten grants for a number of projects. A lot of stuff through the NRCS: got a high tunnel, funded some irrigation system upgrades (subsurface drip for trees), pollinator habitat (planted 150 fruiting trees and bushes), and also a fencing project that protected a lot of my growing spaces with deer fence. Beyond the NRCS grants I applied for a fellowship grant through the farmer veteran coalition and got a brand new spading machine (I’m in the Missoula area if anyone wants to use it!). My experience is that once a grant is identified and you qualify, the process of applying is the easy part.
I got a NRCS grant for building a compost barn and 200 hard wood trees mixed in with 100 pine trees. They help put in 2 box culvert crossings over a stream on my property and putting in dry hydrants for the fire department, this had grants from 4 different organizations and was full of red tape.
I have done a few "studies / feild days" with a local ag collage that I'm about 45 minutes away from. I have turned down a lot of their studies due to different details in the studies.
-I did a study where they gave me 75 American Chestnut trees and provided most of the labor for planting 300 trees from NRCS in a agroforestry type setup. In 15 years they have sent out a teams 7 times to survey the trees. I have a few restrictions about cutting trees for the next 5 years and they say they want to collect seeds for a study down the road.
-They planted a few wide strips of wild flowers between the trees they planted. They put down lime in the spring and harvested some seeds that fall. I was not able to use the land during that time.
-They did a soil test study where they planted a seed mix and I was only allowed to run chickens, but I had to keep my chicken trailers, feed, and waters one 1 side of the lanes so they could test the other side of the lane. This was a 2 year study.
-There was a lime study they did where we split the cost of lime and they spread it. They used a few different types of lime and a few of the plots they mixed in a different type of rock dust. They did soil test for 24 month.
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