USDA notes 5 million acres in conservation easements

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture and private landowners have partnered to protect more than 5 million acres of wetlands, grasslands and prime farmland — an area the size of New Jersey. Since October, USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service has enrolled 110,000 acres in new conservation easements, bringing USDA to the conservation milestone. NRCS has offered conservation easements through the Farm Bill for 28 years, through programs like the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, which helps landowners, land trusts and other entities protect, restore and enhance wetlands, grasslands and working farms and ranches through conservation easements. These programs benefit participants and the American public by creating cleaner air, water and open spaces, according to a USDA news release. Wetland easements — totaling more than 2.8 million acres nationwide — improve water quality by filtering sediments and chemicals, reducing flooding, recharging groundwater, protecting biological diversity and providing opportunities for educational, scientific and undeveloped recreational activities, the release said. Wetland easements are crucial to wildlife, the release said, and are credited for the recovery of the Louisiana black bear in 2019 and the Oregon chub in 2015. Whooping cranes rely on wetland easements on their cross-country treks and for raising young. Also, the wet meadows of sagebrush country are an oasis for wildlife like sage grouse. Agricultural land easements protect the long-term viability of the nation's food supply by preventing conversion of productive working lands to non-agricultural uses, the release said. These easements have been crucial to protecting rangelands and farmsteads from urban encroachment, ensuring the most productive lands remain working lands. Agricultural land easements, including grassland easements, total more than 1.9 million acres. Easements also can be used to protect floodplains and forests, providing public benefits, including carbon sequestration, water quality, historic preservation, wildlife habitat and protection of open space, the release said. Working with private landowners to preserve and restore wetlands, grasslands, forests and farmlands is integral to USDA's efforts to build resiliency and reduce the impacts of climate change across the nation, the release said. Easements protect sensitive lands from development in perpetuity, and landowners can partner with NRCS to implement voluntary climate-smart management practices that maximize the amount of carbon sequestered from the atmosphere and stored in soils or plant biomass across these landscapes. Farmers and private foresters looking to enroll farmland, grasslands or wetlands in a conservation easement may submit proposals to the NRCS state office to acquire conservation easements on eligible land. To enroll land through wetland reserve easements, landowners should contact local Ag Center at (419) 447-7073.