Applications and Forms
If you’re interested in applying for NRCS conservation programs, contact your local NRCS office. To apply, you’ll have to complete an application as well as have other forms on file.
The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) helps landowners, land trusts, and other entities protect, restore, and enhance wetlands or protect working farms and ranches through conservation easements.
NRCS is streamlining its Agricultural Conservation Easement Program to improve the program for landowners and partners. Learn more about these changes.
The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) protects the agricultural viability and related conservation values of eligible land by limiting nonagricultural uses which negatively affect agricultural uses and conservation values, protect grazing uses and related conservation values by restoring or conserving eligible grazing land, and protecting and restoring and enhancing wetlands on eligible land.
ACEP has two components:
Additionally, through ACEP, USDA offers the Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP), a voluntary program through which NRCS enters into agreements with eligible partners to leverage resources to carry out high priority wetland protection, restoration, and enhancement and to improve wildlife habitat.
Investing in California ACEP
Extended CSP-IRA Application Date: April 28, 2023
Learn MoreDean Kwasny
Easement Programs Specialist
Davis State Office, California
Phone: (530) 792-5648
Email: dean.kwasny@usda.gov
Elizabeth Palmer
ALE Program Specialist
Davis State Office, California
Phone: (530) 792-5672
Email: elizabeth.palmer@usda.gov
Nate Key
WRE Team Leader, Northern California
Yuba City Field Office
Phone: (530) 216-5856
Email: nathan.key@usda.gov
Karl Kraft
WRE Biologist, Southern California
Modesto Field Office
Phone: (209) 287-3637
Email: karl.kraft@usda.gov
Agricultural Conservation Easement Program - Agricultural Land Easement (ACEP-ALE)
FY23 Application Deadline: December 16, 2022
Ranking Deadline: February 10, 2023
Agricultural Conservation Easement Program - Wetland Reserve Easement (ACEP-WRE) - Batch 1
FY23 Application Deadline: December 16, 2022
Ranking Deadline: February 10, 2023
Agricultural Conservation Easement Program - Wetland Reserve Easement (ACEP-WRE) - IRA - Batch 2
FY23 Application Deadline: March 17, 2023
Ranking Deadline: April 14, 2023
Funding Selections: May 8, 2023
Five Steps to ALE Brochure
Learn what information will be needed to apply for ACEP-ALE
Geographic Area Rate Caps (GARC) for Fiscal Year 2023
Wetland Reserve Easement (WRE) Screening Worksheet for Fiscal Year 2023
Learn what information will be needed to apply for ACEP-WRE
Contact your local service center to start your application.
Do you farm or ranch and want to make improvements to the land that you own or lease?
Natural Resources Conservation Service offers technical and financial assistance to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners.
To get started with NRCS, we recommend you stop by your local NRCS field office. We’ll discuss your vision for your land.
NRCS provides landowners with free technical assistance, or advice, for their land. Common technical assistance includes: resource assessment, practice design and resource monitoring. Your conservation planner will help you determine if financial assistance is right for you.
We’ll walk you through the application process. To get started on applying for financial assistance, we’ll work with you:
Once complete, we’ll work with you on the application, or CPA 1200.
Applications for most programs are accepted on a continuous basis, but they’re considered for funding in different ranking periods. Be sure to ask your local NRCS district conservationist about the deadline for the ranking period to ensure you turn in your application in time.
As part of the application process, we’ll check to see if you are eligible. To do this, you’ll need to bring:
If you don’t have a farm tract number, you can get one from USDA’s Farm Service Agency. Typically, the local FSA office is located in the same building as the local NRCS office. You only need a farm tract number if you’re interested in financial assistance.
NRCS will take a look at the applications and rank them according to local resource concerns, the amount of conservation benefits the work will provide and the needs of applicants.
If you’re selected, you can choose whether to sign the contract for the work to be done.
Once you sign the contract, you’ll be provided standards and specifications for completing the practice or practices, and then you will have a specified amount of time to implement. Once the work is implemented and inspected, you’ll be paid the rate of compensation for the work if it meets NRCS standards and specifications.