USDA invests $1.5 billion in climate solutions and conservation

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced a historic $1.5 billion investment in partner-driven conservation and climate solutions through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s goal is to receive “proposals focused on climate-smart agriculture, urban agriculture and conservation projects that will help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners adopt and expand conservation strategies to enhance natural resources while tackling the climate crisis.”

The program, often shorthanded as RCPP, was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to promote coordination between the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and its partners — including land trusts — on innovative projects to address conservation concerns on U.S. farms. NRCS will award funding to local nonprofits, producers, tribal entities and landowners for projects that improve things like soil health, water quality, air quality and wildlife habitat private land.

“We had unprecedented demand for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program last year, showing the robust interest in conservation from farmers and ranchers,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a written statement announcing the funds. “Through the increase in funding from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, we’re able to invest even more this year in this important program, increasing our impact across the landscape. We’re looking forward to seeing what the more streamlined and customer-oriented Regional Conservation Partnership Program can do to get more conservation on the ground in the coming months and years.”

The announcement combines funding from two federal sources critical to private land conservation — the Farm Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Farm Bill is the single largest federal funding source for private land conservation, creating significant opportunities for land trusts to protect high-priority farm and ranch lands, grasslands, wetlands and forests. Additional funding opportunities created by the Inflation Reduction Act will help meet the demand for existing Farm Bill conservation programs, while also boosting investment in the climate crisis and providing a more equitable delivery of USDA programs.

Increased federal funding means unprecedented conservation opportunities

By boosting support for Farm Bill programs like RCPP and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, the agency will offer unprecedented opportunities for land trusts to protect even more working lands from the threat of conversion and development. But the key to making it all work is the partnership between NRCS, the Land Trust Alliance and its member land trusts.

“At the very heart of RCPP are two words: conservation and partnership,” said Russell Ames, NRCS’s projects branch chief for the Financial Assistance Programs Division. “When land trusts partner with the RCPP program they help us protect a larger landscape, reach new landowners and amplify the impact of NRCS conservation programs.”

“Land trusts are trusted partners that bridge the gap between landowners and the agency,” Lori Faeth, the Alliance’s senior director of government relations, told Saving Land earlier this year. “If we’re to address the increasingly rapid loss of agricultural lands across the country, we must continue to work together."

Examples of land trusts making an impact across the country through RCPP include:

• A collaborative led by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians alongside Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy and Leelanau Conservancy that is restoring and preserving the fragmented multi-tribal fisheries and wildlife populations in northwest Lower Michigan.

• The Coastal Prairie Additive Conservation Partnership in Texas, where the Texas Agricultural Land Trust is working to safeguard the state’s remaining coastal tallgrass prairie while improving water conservation.

• In Iowa, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation is working to restore 10,000 acres of grassland, emphasizing the nationally recognized Loess Hills Landform, a Grassland of Special Environmental Significance.

The Alliance connects the dots between funding and conservation

The Alliance serves as both a conduit to NRCS for member land trusts and an advocate for Farm Bill policies that help land trusts and landowners work together to access funding. To help boost the participation of land trusts in conservation programs, the Alliance is building an NRCS Conservation Acquisitions Team that will provide direct technical support to land trusts on both RCPP and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. The team will provide direct support to land trusts involved in entity-held easements through the ACEP and RCPP programs, helping land trusts to create strong application packages and address issues that create bottlenecks in the enrollment process. The team will coordinate closely with NRCS, assessing and refining processes to help expand farmland conservation and support producers nationwide.

“Our partnership with NRCS offers immense opportunity,” said Justin Merrifield, who joined the Alliance in January as the team’s senior project manager. “My job is to help land trusts leverage that opportunity by conserving and keeping working lands in the hands of landowners, families and communities.”