Agricultural Conservation Easement Program

The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) helps landowners, land trusts, and other entities protect, restore, and enhance wetlands, grasslands, and working farms and ranches through conservation easements. Under the Agricultural Land Easements component, NRCS helps American Indian tribes, state and local governments and non-governmental organizations protect working agricultural lands and limit non-agricultural uses of the land.  Under the Wetlands Reserve Easements component, NRCS helps to restore, protect and enhance enrolled wetlands.

Over the past 25 year, NRCS has worked with landowners to protect more than 4.4 million acres of wetlands and agricultural lands, a value of over a billion dollars in a diversified real estate portfolio that has resulted in improved soil health, water and air quality and wildlife habitat.  Read more about the easement successes around the nation.

• Saving the Nation’s Wetlands (PDF, 11MB)

• Ensuring the Future of Agriculture (PDF, 9MB)

Benefits

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. Land protected by agricultural land easements provides additional public benefits, including environmental quality, historic preservation, wildlife habitat and protection of open space.

Wetland Reserve Easements provide habitat for fish and wildlife, including threatened and endangered species, improve water quality by filtering sediments and chemicals, reduce flooding, recharge groundwater, protect biological diversity and provide opportunities for educational, scientific and limited recreational activities.

Agricultural Land Easements

NRCS provides financial assistance to eligible partners for purchasing Agricultural Land Easements that protect the agricultural use and conservation values of eligible land. In the case of working farms, the program helps farmers and ranchers keep their land in agriculture. The program also protects grazing uses and related conservation values by conserving grassland, including rangeland, pastureland and shrubland. Eligible partners include American Indian tribes, state and local governments and non-governmental organizations that have farmland, rangeland or grassland protection programs.

Under the Agricultural Land Easement component, NRCS may contribute up to 50 percent of the fair market value of the agricultural land easement. Where NRCS determines that grasslands of special environmental significance will be protected, NRCS may contribute up to 75 percent of the fair market value of the agricultural land easement.

Wetland Reserve Easements

NRCS also provides technical and financial assistance directly to private landowners and Indian tribes to restore, protect, and enhance wetlands through the purchase of a wetland reserve easement. For acreage owned by an Indian tribe, there is an additional enrollment option of a 30-year contract.

Through the wetland reserve enrollment options, NRCS may enroll eligible land through:  

Permanent Easements – Permanent easements are conservation easements in perpetuity. NRCS pays 100 percent of the easement value for the purchase of the easement. Additionally, NRCS pays between 75 to 100 percent of the restoration costs.

30-year Easements – 30-year easements expire after 30 years. Under 30-year easements, NRCS pays 50 to 75 percent of the easement value for the purchase of the easement. Additionally, NRCS pays between 50 to 75 percent of the restoration costs.  

Term Easements - Term easements are easements that are for the maximum duration allowed under applicable State laws. NRCS pays 50 to 75 percent of the easement value for the purchase of the term easement. Additionally, NRCS pays between 50 to 75 percent of the restoration costs.

30-year Contracts – 30-year contracts are only available to enroll acreage owned by Indian tribes, and program payment rates are commensurate with 30-year easements.

For wetland reserve easements, NRCS pays all costs associated with recording the easement in the local land records office, including recording fees, charges for abstracts, survey and appraisal fees, and title insurance.

Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP) –WREP continues to be a voluntary program through which NRCS signs agreements with eligible partners to leverage resources to carry out high priority wetland protection, restoration and enhancement and to improve wildlife habitat.

Partner benefits through WREP agreements include:

• Wetland restoration and protection in critical areas

• Ability to cost-share restoration or enhancement beyond NRCS requirements through leveraging

• Able to participate in the management or monitoring of selected project locations

• Ability to use innovative restoration methods and practices

Who Is Eligible

Land eligible for agricultural easements includes cropland, rangeland, grassland, pastureland and nonindustrial private forest land. NRCS will prioritize applications that protect agricultural uses and related conservation values of the land and those that maximize the protection of contiguous acres devoted to agricultural use.

To enroll land through agricultural land easements, NRCS enters into agreements with eligible partners.

Land eligible for wetland reserve easements includes farmed or converted wetland that can be successfully and cost-effectively restored. NRCS will prioritize applications based the easement’s potential for protecting and enhancing habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife.

To enroll land through wetland reserve easements, NRCS enters into purchase agreements with eligible private landowners or Indian tribes that include the right for NRCS to develop and implement a wetland reserve restoration easement plan. This plan restores, protects, and enhances the wetland’s functions and values.

How to Apply

NRCS staff and partners will work with applicants to help them with the application process. Eligible entities are encouraged to apply for program agreements and work with landowners to help them through the application process for ACEP and provide one-on-one assistance to create the conservation easement that works best for their farming or ranching operation.

To enroll eligible Arizona land in the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, contact Devon Cunningham at (602) 280-8804 or Devon.Cunningham@usda.gov.

NRCS accepts applications on a continuous basis. The deadline to be considered for fiscal year 2021 funding in Arizona is Friday, February 26, 2021.

Below are the required documents for ACEP application packages.*

 *Additional documents may be required upon further review.

More Information

• ACEP Fact Sheet (PDF, 1.2MB)

• Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP)

• Restoring America's Wetlands: A Private Lands Conservation Success Story (PDF, 2.2 MB) & attached references (PDF, 24 KB)

• ACEP program data results for FY 2014 - present are available in the RCA Data Viewer website on this page.

• The ACEP Interim Final Rule and related documents are available on the Federal Register and the NRCS 2018 Farm Bill Rules page.

Resources from the American Farmland Trust

• ACEP-ALE Factsheet for landowners and entities.

• Annotated checklists detailing eligibility criteria for land, landowners, and entities.

• Step by step guides to completing an entity application (NRCS-CPA-41) and a parcel application (NRCS-CPA-41A). 

• Instructional videos including How to Use the Farmland Protection Directory which helps landowners find a partner entity, and How to Use the Web Soil Survey, which helps entities assess the soils and land uses on a specific parcel. 

• Webpages on the Farmland Information Center website (www.farmlandinfo.org):  

  • ACEP-ALE landing webpage: https://farmlandinfo.org/acep-ale/

  • ACEP-ALE resources and tools for landowners: https://farmlandinfo.org/acep-ale-for-landowners/

  • ACEP-ALE resources and tools for entities: https://farmlandinfo.org/acep-ale-for-entities/