Preserving Rural Farmland

Wheat Stubble in Eastern Oregon

The Farmland Protection Program (FPP) is a voluntary US Department of Agriculture (USDA) program, administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), that helps protects working agricultural land from conversion to non-agricultural uses. Since 1996, the program has provided matching funds to state, local or tribal governmental entities with existing farmland protection programs to purchase conservation easements. The statutory goal of the program is to protect between 170,000 and 340,000 acres of farmland. As of September 30, 2000, nearly 70,000 acres of prime, unique, statewide or locally important farmland has been permanently protected from conversion to non-agricultural uses.

Farmers and ranchers that participate in FPP sell their development rights to nonfederal governmental entities or qualifying nongovernmental organizations (in FY 2001 the Agricultural Risk Protection Act provided funding and made it possible for eligible nongovernmental organization to compete for FPP funds). The FPP conservation easement requires that landowners adopt a conservation plan for the farm, ensuring that the soil and water resources will be permanently protected.

Unlike many conservation programs, NRCS uses a request for proposals (RFP) process for FPP participation. An RFP notice is published in the Federal Register each year when funds are available. To be eligible, state, tribal or local government entities must have pending offers with willing landowners. Individual landowners need to apply to and be accepted by state, tribal or local government programs to participate in FPP. To date, all acquired easements are permanent easements.

Cooperating entities process the easement acquisition, hold and manage easements acquired. The federal share for any easement acquisition is limited to a maximum of 50 percent of the purchased easement price, not to exceed the fair market value of the conservation easement. A contingent remainder right must be incorporated in each easement deed for the protection of the federal investment.

The program has used all of the $35 million authorized by the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996. Since FPP’s inception in 1996, 19 states have received over $33.5 million in FPP financial assistance, with remaining funds going to provide landowners with needed technical assistance for processing easements as well as developing and implementing conservation plans. To date, FPP conservation easements have been granted on approximately 361 farms, with an estimated total easement value of more than $126.48 million. For every federal dollar, an additional $3.60 has been contributed by the participating state and local government entities.

This fiscal year, the FPP program has received more than 100 proposals which include over 780 farms and 175,000 acres. The requests have a total conservation easement value of approximately $303 million. The requests for federal dollars amounted to $116,430,000, far exceeding the $17.5 million available in the Farmland Protection Program. Award decisions will be made by NRCS in June 2001.

The FPP program has the potential to materially enhance the economic, social and environmental character of rural areas in rapidly growing areas. In addition to providing jobs and filling niche food markets, private working lands with FPP easements also have conservation plans implemented which means these lands will provide wildlife habitat, ground water recharge and other environmental amenities indefinitely.

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Doug Lawrence of NRCS. He can be reached at (202) 720-1510.
For more information about the FPP program, please contact Denise Coleman at (202) 720-9476 or visit www.info.usda.gov/nrcs/pcp/fpp.htm.

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