# Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)

> Cost-share from USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (Federal) for United States.

Official page: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/csp-conservation-stewardship-program
Source: https://treerm.org/residents/programs/us-usda-nrcs-conservation-stewardship-program · Updated 2026-11-08 · Status: Open

**What you get:** Annual payments under a five-year contract for maintaining and adding conservation activities across a whole farm or woodland

CSP rewards landowners who already manage their land well and agree to do more. Unlike EQIP, it covers the entire operation, including nonindustrial private forest land, and pays annually for the conservation activities carried out. USDA lists forest stand improvement, tree and shrub establishment and other forestry activities among the practices NRCS cost-shares through CSP.

## Who qualifies

Agricultural producers and private forest landowners who control the land for the contract term and whose whole operation is enrolled. Specific thresholds are set by NRCS and vary by state.

## How to apply

Contact NRCS at your local USDA Service Center to start a conservation plan and CSP application. Applications are accepted year-round and ranked by state cut-off dates.

**When:** Year-round applications with state ranking deadlines

**For:** Landowners, Farmers

> Note: Facts were read on USDA's farmers.gov forest-operations page; the nrcs.usda.gov CSP page could not be reached at research time, so minimum payment amounts and current signup dates were not re-verified.