Day 287
With plenty of work to do in our restoration process, we have dug deeper into potential partners and resources that will make this process more manageable in terms of time and financial resources. If we had an unlimited amount of funds or a Powerball jackpot in our future, we would have qualms about pouring money into making our land the best land it could be. But I don't necessarily foresee that happening anytime soon.
Getting financial assistance isn't the most exciting process. It involves meetings, applications, evaluations, assessments, prioritizations, and patience. So far, we have been ineligible for many of the potential programs either because the land in need of restoration does not have a history of being farmed for crops or because our property is just not large or valuable enough to have a sizable ecological impact according to the powers that be. While this has been a roadblock, it hasn't been a dead end.
A year ago, we received a tiny bit of financial assistance. While technically a drop in the bucket of everything that needed to be done, this money offered much more value than the dollar amount attached to it. We received money to have a certified technician complete a Forest management plan, or FMP. In this plan, the author detailed many of the goals I discussed with him on his site visit. While the money awarded was simply to pay the technician to complete the plan until approval, obtaining a FMP was crucial to understanding our goals, prioritizing said goals, and opening up our property to otherwise unavailable funds.
Recently, we had a meeting with an individual form the government organization in charge of potential funding programs available to us. While our land is somewhat limited in its access to certain funding, the fact that we already have a FMP puts us somewhat ahead of the curve. It’s basically a hurdle one must clear before being able to even apply for some of the more sizable and long-term funding contracts. Our hurdle is cleared. Now, we have to dig into our plan, decipher what goals take precedence, determine a timeline to reach those goals, apply, and hope for the best.
