On Wednesday, May 29, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced that it is seeking new applications for enrollment in the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) and the Grassland Reserve Program (GRP) in fiscal year 2013.

Both programs allow for continuous enrollment throughout the year, and NRCS has been receiving enrollment applications since January.  However, until now, NRCS had not received its apportionment for the programs from the Office of Management and the Budget (OMB) and therefore did not know how many acres it could enroll in FY 2013.

NRCS announced that it will enroll 100,000 acres in the WRP and 200,000 acres in the GRP.  We expect that some of the acres will be from new applicants, and some from the existing waiting lists.  The waiting lists include farmers and landowners with previously approved contracts pending funding availability.  USDA will also put some of the remaining money in the WRP account toward restoration projects on existing WRP acres.

There is no national application cutoff date for the programs.  Instead, each state will establish its own ranking deadline by which farmers must submit their applications in order to be considered for FY 2013.  Interested landowners should therefore be sure to check with their State NRCS office for further information.