Ontario County Soil And Water Conservation District

Ontario County Soil And Water Conservation District, a U.S. local government entity based in Canandaigua, New York, operates as a federal grant sub-recipient focused on agricultural conservation, watershed management, and erosion control in the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes basins. The district does not hold prime federal contracts; 75% of its recent federal awards are sub-grants awarded by the Department of Agriculture and Department of the Interior through prime grantees, with one prime grant from the Department of Agriculture.

Ontario County's federal footprint is modest and concentrated in natural resources. The district has received four federal awards totaling $723 thousand across the past three years, all rooted in Great Lakes restoration and agricultural conservation work. Its single prime grant—a $723-thousand project grant from the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Region 9 focused on managing hemlock woolly adelgid in Ontario County—ran through January 31, 2025. As a sub-recipient, Ontario County participates in three sub-grants: the Eastern Genesee River Phosphorus Reduction Project (awarded Sep 17, 2025 by the Great Lakes Commission, the prime grantee), a prescribed grazing and soil health initiative (awarded Jan 31, 2024 by the National Fish And Wildlife Foundation) targeting 1,000 acres of farmland conservation across 10 farms in the Lake Ontario Watershed, and the Finger Lakes Phosphorus and Sediment Reduction Project (awarded Sep 28, 2023 by the Great Lakes Commission) focused on structural erosion control and best management practices across multiple counties.

The district's customer base spans the Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, Forest Service Region 9, and the Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service Region 3. Activity is flat at one award per year. The district operates as a state and local conservation partner rather than a federal contractor; it sub-receives grant funds to implement agricultural best management practices, erosion control, and water quality improvements on working farmland in New York's Great Lakes watershed region.