1470.2—Administration.
(a)
The regulations in this part will be administered under the general supervision and direction of the Chief, NRCS, who is a Vice President of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC).
(b)
The Chief is authorized to modify or waive a provision of this part if the Chief deems the application of that provision to a particular limited situation to be inappropriate and inconsistent with the purposes of the program. This authority cannot be further delegated. The Chief may not modify or waive any provision of this part which is required by applicable law.
(1)
Make the program available nationwide to eligible applicants on a continuous application basis with one or more ranking periods to determine enrollments. One of the ranking periods will occur in the first quarter of each fiscal year, to the extent practicable; and
(d)
During the period beginning on October 1, 2008, and ending on September 30, 2017, NRCS will, to the maximum extent practicable:
(2)
Manage CSP to achieve a national average rate of $18 per acre, which includes the costs of all financial and technical assistance and any other expenses associated with program enrollment and participation.
(1)
Obtain advice from the State Technical Committee and local working groups on the development of State-level technical, outreach, and program matters, including:
(i)
Establishment of ranking pools appropriate for the conduct of CSP within the State to ensure program availability and prioritization of conservation activities. Ranking pools may be based on watersheds, geographic areas, or other appropriate regions within a State and may consider high-priority regional and State-level resource concern areas;
(ii)
Identification of not less than three, nor more than five priority resource concerns in particular watersheds, geographic areas, or other appropriate regions within a State;
(iii)
Identification of resource-conserving crops that will be part of resource-conserving crop rotations;
(iv)
Development of design protocols and participation procedures for participation in on-farm research, and demonstration and pilot projects; and
(v)
Evaluation of Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) projects and allowable program adjustments for the conduct of projects.
(2)
Assign NRCS employees as designated conservationists to be responsible for CSP at the local level; and
(f)
NRCS may enter into agreements with Federal, State, and local agencies, conservation districts, Indian tribes, private entities, and individuals to assist NRCS with program implementation.