The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will invest about $138 million of financial assistance from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in history. This will be through 138 new climate-smart conservation easements, where farmers and ranchers are conserving wetlands, grasslands and prime farmlands. These selected Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) projects are part of a broad investment in climate-smart agriculture and forestry.
This year, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) expanded priorities to enable more producers to adopt climate-smart systems, as well as streamline ACEP to speed up assistance for producers. In addition to the climate-change mitigation benefits, ACEP helps safeguard the future of farmers, ranchers, and agricultural communities who depend on and sustain the land as a way of life, especially under a changing climate.
Southeast AgNet’s Randall Weiseman talked to Carrie Lindig, NRCS Easement Program Division Director, who explains the two components of ACEP.
As Carrie noted, the NRCS is offering Inflation Reduction Act funding in both of ACEP’s components: Agricultural Land Easements (ALE) and Wetland Reserve Easements (WRE). For Inflation Reduction Act funding, NRCS prioritized land that will most reduce, capture, avoid or sequester carbon dioxide, methane or nitrous oxide emissions.
NRCS has selected projects addressing these priorities, which include:
Lands with organic soils and high carbon mineral soils: 26 ACEP-WRE projects in 8 states – Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Restored native forest habitat: 59 ACEP-WRE projects in 8 states – Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri.
Existing native forest habitat: 15 ACEP-WRE projects in 6 states – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi and Missouri.
These projects are tentatively selected, meaning that NRCS will work with the project applicants to complete eligibility for enrollment.
A total of $19.5 billion in additional funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, including $1.4 billion for ACEP, is available over several years for climate-smart agriculture and forestry mitigation activities through NRCS conservation programs.
NRCS is streamlining ACEP appraisals, land surveys and certifying eligible entities who help NRCS and producers enroll land into agricultural land easements.
Applications for ACEP and other NRCS conservation programs are accepted on a continuous basis. To learn more, contact NRCS at your local USDA Service Center.