Click the link to read the article on the Colorado Public Radio website (Caitlyn Kim). Here’s an excerpt:
February 26, 2025
In rural Colorado, U.S. Department of Agriculture funding has long provided not only a safety net against disasters and shifting commodity prices but also the seed money for projects ranging from irrigation ditches to broadband expansion. President Donald Trump’s efforts to remake and slim down the federal government are putting that support in question.
“We lost an NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) grant that totaled about $640,000 or $630,000,” said Michael Nolan, president of the Mancos Conservation District and a farmer himself. “We had spent down about 25 percent of that already implementing programs, paying staff time, and to have that rug just pulled out from underneath us means … potential furloughs, potential layoffs. It’s a big hit to our conservation district.”
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said last week the USDA will release about $20 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding that had been frozen, but the rest was still under review. And other grant funding is expected to be canceled…The Conservation District signed a contract with USDA in February 2024 to do conservation education. It involved listening sessions, equipment demonstrations, field trainings and agricultural education on issues from soil moisture to crop management.
“At the end of the day, we believe the funding was pulled because of two phrases in it. One was ‘equity’ and one was ‘underserved communities’,” Nolan said…
One Western Slope ag producer said right now there’s no certainty over what will or will not be funded…It’s not just individual producers that have been impacted by the USDA cuts. Six rural electric cooperatives in the state that received USDA grants funded through Biden’s signature climate and health bill have had their funding frozen, while the U.S. Forest Service, also under USDA, laid off more than 3,000 employees.