NEW FUNDING FOR FISCAL YEAR 2025 FOR AGRICULTURAL CONSERVATION EASEMENT PROGRAM

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will be the administrators for fiscal year (FY) 2025 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). The ACEP program helps landowners and eligible entities restore, conserve, and protect wetlands, grasslands, and agricultural lands that are at risk of being converted to non-grassland uses. Carbon and other natural resource benefits are sequestered through healthy grasslands, wetlands, and farmland.

Year round, applications for ACEP Agricultural Land Easements (ACEP-ALE) and Wetland Reserve Easements (ACEP-WRE) are accepted by NRCS. To be considered for the two state led funding cycles, producers, landowners, and partners interested in applying for ACEP funding should apply at their local NRCS office by the next two ranking dates, October 4, 2024 or December 20, 2024. Plus, applications submitted in FY 2024 will be automatically re-considered in the October 4^th funding cycle.

For FY 2025, eligible applications for IRA funds received by states will go through a competitive process. Current ACEP priorities for IRA funding remain unchanged from 2024 and are available in all states. State specific priorities formed by NRCS may be in place depending on the location. IRA funding is additional to authorized and available Farm Bill funds.

For ACEP-ALE, NRCS is now prioritizing:

• Grasslands in highest risk areas for conversion to non-grassland uses to prevent release of soil carbon stores,
• Threatened agricultural lands for conversion to non-agricultural uses, and
• State specific priorities such as rice cultivation on subsiding highly organic soils.

For ACEP-WRE, NRCS is now prioritizing:

• Land with high organic carbon soil,
• Lands eligible to be restored to and managed as forests,
• Lands eligible to be managed as a forest with existing forest cover, and
• Specific geographical specific priorities, such as former cranberry bogs, wet meadows, and ephemeral wetlands in grassland ecosystems.

IRA included an additional $1.4 billion in funds for ACEP over five years and revised the program’s authority to provide funds for easements to maximize the reduction, capture, avoidance or sequestration of greenhouse gas emission. For 2025, IRA ACEP authorized funding is $500 million.

Want to learn more about NRCS programs, contact your local USDA Service Center or visit nrcs.usda.gov.

To apply for NRCS programs, manage conservation plans and contracts, or view conservation maps log into your farmers.gov account. If you don’t already have one, sign up here.