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A Closer Look at the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program in 2014

February 12, 2015


In early September of 2014, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced that it had awarded $328 million for 380 wetland, grassland, and farmland conservation easements covering 129,000 acres in the first year of the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP).

At that time, NRCS did not have additional information on the types of easements that were funded in each state. That information has now been made available and this post examines the fiscal year (FY) 2014 ACEP enrollment on a state-by-state basis to determine the top states for wetland easements, farmland easements, and grassland easements.

State-By-State Breakdown

For FY 2014, the top ten states in terms of financial and technical assistance obligated to farmers, land trusts, and other eligible entities for all types of easements were:

State Dollars obligated
Florida $30.8 million
Arkansas $19.9 million
California $19.1 million
Louisiana $16.9 million
Iowa $13.3 million
Texas $10.5 million
Kentucky $10.4 million
Ohio $8.5 million
South Dakota $7.6 million
Mississippi $6.5 million

In the tables below, we list the top ten states in terms of acreage and number of contracts for wetland easements, farmland easements, and grassland easements.

Wetland Easements – by number of projects

State Number of Projects
Arkansas 30
Louisiana 22
Iowa 18
North Dakota 16
Kentucky 16
South Dakota 15
Kansas 14
Mississippi 13
California 12
Wisconsin 12

Wetland Easements – by number of acres

State Acres Enrolled
Louisiana 7,473
Arkansas 6,955
California 4,738
North Dakota 3,604
Florida 3,518
Georgia 3,046
Mississippi 2,264
Texas 2,096
Minnesota 2,014
South Dakota 1,877

Grasslands of Special Environmental Significance – by number of projects

State Number of Projects
Utah 5
California 3
Kansas 3
Nevada 2
Idaho 2
Nebraska 2
Montana 1
Texas 1

Grasslands of Special Environmental Significance – by number of acres

State Acres Enrolled
Montana 19,452
Utah 9,312
California 6,515
Nevada 4,556
Kansas 3,883
Idaho 3,839
Nebraska 1,406
Texas 210

Farmland Easements – by number of projects*

*Not including Grasslands of Special Environmental Significance

State Number of Projects
Vermont 23
Massachusetts 18
Kentucky 14
Ohio 13
Connecticut 12
New Jersey 11
Michigan 10
Colorado 10
New Hampshire 8
Florida 7

Farmland Easements – by number of acres*

*Not including Grasslands of Special Environmental Significance

State Acres Enrolled
Florida 7,040
Colorado 6,700
Ohio 3,870
Montana 3,291
Wyoming 3,132
Vermont 3,078
California 2,533
Kentucky 1,340
Michigan 1,126
Connecticut 983

Technical Assistance

Particularly noteworthy in this year’s sign up is that the proportion of mandatory easement dollars going to NRCS Technical Assistance (TA) increased significantly from the levels provided through the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) and Farm and Ranch land Program (FRPP) under the 2008 Farm Bill.

NRCS uses this type of conservation technical assistance funding (known as direct, or “mandatory” spending) to help producers implement conservation activities on their land.

Between 2009 and 2012, NRCS apportioned roughly 8 percent of WRP funding and 4 percent of FRPP funding for TA. For the first ACEP enrollment period, NRCS apportioned nearly 18 percent of total ACEP funding for TA.

One of the most persistent problems with WRP under the 2008 Farm Bill was the shortfall in TA dollars needed to restore wetlands. Over the years, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) routinely shortchanged NRCS in the amount of TA funding apportioned for WRP. This is one reason that a substantial wetland restoration backlog developed.

During the 2014 Farm Bill debate we worked with partner organizations to secure more flexibility for USDA to make these apportionment decisions. We are very pleased with USDA’s increased focus on technical assistance, and urge the agency to continue to address the wetland restoration backlog.

Background

The 2014 Farm Bill created ACEP by combining three former programs – WRP, FRPP, and the Grassland Reserve Program (GRP). ACEP is divided into two components: a wetland easement component, which largely mirrors the former WRP, and an agricultural land easement component, which is intended to retain the purposes and functionality of GRP and FRPP.

As we previously reported, for 2014 NRCS received 1,450 ACEP applications, requesting a total of $546 million in funding.  From the application pool, NRCS is funding 53 percent of agricultural land easement applications and 51 percent of wetland easement proposals. Of total ACEP funding for 2014, 68 percent ($223 million) went to wetland easement projects, while 32 percent ($105 million) went to agricultural land easement projects.

For more information about ACEP, visit our Grassroots Guide to the 2014 Farm Bill.


Categories: Conservation, Energy & Environment, Farm Bill, Grants and Programs


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