The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today new funding for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) for fiscal year 2025 as part of President Biden and Vice President Harris’ Investing in America agenda. Administered by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the program helps landowners and other eligible entities conserve, restore, and protect wetlands, productive agricultural lands, and grasslands at risk of conversion to non-grassland uses. Healthy wetlands, grasslands, and farmlands sequester carbon and provide many other natural resource benefits. Today’s funding is made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in climate action in history.
“Thanks to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, we have additional resources to help fund Agricultural Conservation Easement Program work to protect lands in conservation easements,” said USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Terry Cosby. “ACEP continues to be a valuable and effective conservation tool that provides long-term protection of our nation’s farmland and wetland resources.”
NRCS accepts applications year-round for ACEP Agricultural Land Easements (ACEP-ALE) and Wetland Reserve Easements (ACEP-WRE). Interested producers, landowners, and partners should apply by the next two ranking dates, Oct. 4, 2024, or Dec. 20, 2024, at their local NRCS office, to be considered for these two state-led funding cycles. In addition, any application submitted to NRCS that was unfunded in fiscal year 2024 will be automatically re-considered during the October 4 funding cycle.
In fiscal year 2025, states will receive Inflation Reduction Act funding and all eligible applications within a state will compete. The current ACEP priorities for the Inflation Reduction Act funding are unchanged from last fiscal year and are available in all states. Depending on location, NRCS may also have a state-specific priority. The Inflation Reduction Act funding is in addition to the funding authorized and available under the Farm Bill.
For ACEP-ALE, NRCS is currently prioritizing securing:
• Grasslands in areas of highest risk for conversion to non-grassland uses to prevent the release of soil carbon stores.
• Agricultural lands under threat of conversion to non-agricultural uses.
• State-specific priorities including rice cultivation on subsiding highly organic soils.
For ACEP-WRE, NRCS is currently prioritizing:
• Land with soils high in organic carbon.
• Eligible lands that will be restored to and managed as forests, such as bottomland hardwood forests.
• Eligible lands in existing forest cover that will be managed as forests.
• Several geographically specific priorities (i.e., former cranberry bogs, wet meadows, and ephemeral wetlands in grassland ecosystems).
The Inflation Reduction Act included $1.4 billion in additional funding for ACEP over five years and revised ACEP authority, providing funding for easements that will maximize the reduction, capture, avoidance, or sequestration of greenhouse gas emissions. The fiscal year 2025 authorized amount for the Inflation Reduction Act funding for ACEP is $500 million.
ACEP is also a covered program in the President’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to ensure 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy and other investment areas flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
NRCS is streamlining ACEP, to ensure that the program is easier and more convenient to utilize, and to strengthen Inflation Reduction Act implementation. Specifically, NRCS is streamlining ACEP appraisals and land surveys, and certifying eligible entities who help NRCS and producers enroll land into agricultural land easements. For more information, see our fact sheet, ACEP and the Inflation Reduction Act.
This year’s announcement builds on last year’s investments. on March 13, 2024, NRCS announced an investment of about $138 million of financial assistance from the Inflation Reduction Act in 138 new climate-smart conservation easements, through which farmers and ranchers are conserving wetlands, grasslands, and prime farmlands. NRCS will provide additional information regarding funding and sign-up opportunities for the Inflation Reduction Act funding available through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, and Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) for fiscal year 2025 in the near future.
Source : usda.gov