The Mancos Town Board of Trustees on Wednesday, Feb. 26, passed a resolution to support the Mancos Conservation District and expedited a $30,000 allocation in light of recent federal funding cuts.
The money comes from the town’s general fund, and it’s in addition to $35,000 it has already given the conservation district this year.
Last year, the town awarded a total of $35,000.
“We really appreciate the partnership with the town,” said Danny Margoles, the executive director of the Mancos Conservation District, at the meeting. “It’s incredibly valuable for us.”
On Feb. 14, the district received a termination letter for a $630,000 federal grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service that supported educational programs and ongoing projects.
That money also fully supported one position at the district – which it was forced to cut – and partially funds three others.
Margoles said that the money from the town will help support the other three positions, which is “important” so they’re able to keep staff that “do the community and agricultural producer-focused education and outreach work we had been completing through the grant.”
Things like workshops, demonstrations and library lessons; in essence, to continue the work they had been doing all along.
Even with the boost from the town, they’ve cut back where they can and are being “conservative with expenses.”
“When one grant is frozen, it starts pulling pieces out of the house of cards,” he said. “It makes doing work on the ground hard since we have to pull from other places to fill the gaps.”
That’s because grants almost always require matching funds, and those matching funds have to come from somewhere: “terminating the funds in one grant can impact executing deliverables with another grant.”
The NRCS money isn’t the only money the district stands to lose.
It also received a $1.8 million sub-award from the roughly $26 million of grant money the Southwestern Water Conservation District got in January.
That money is up in the air now and was “awarded but not contracted,” so the conservation district didn’t budget staff time for it. They did, however, “anticipate some of it in our annual budget.”
A $2.5 million WaterSMART grant from the Bureau of Reclamation is frozen money the conservation district had budgeted for, but that’s threatened too.
The district has already contracted and planned projects with that money, like three agricultural diversion upgrades that support fish passage in the river. It also set aside 650 acres of forest management for wildfire risk reduction, he said.
Margoles said he’s “optimistic” that the frozen grants will thaw.
“We’re trying to respond to the community’s desires and goals,” Margoles said. “We’re just really appreciative of the relationship with the town.”
