Federal Easement Funding
There is high demand for popular federal easement programs, most of which desperately need additional funding and resources. Here are some of the federal programs and incentives:
The federal conservation easement tax incentive allows landowners to deduct a portion of their conservation easement’s value from their yearly income (up to a certain percentage of their income) for up to 15 years.
The popular Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which recently received full and permanent funding from Congress, can provide funding for both direct land purchase and conservation easement acquisition from willing landowners.
The USDA’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) provides funding to help landowners and land trusts protect and restore wetlands, farms, and ranches through conservation easements.
The USDA’s Healthy Forests Reserve Program funds easements and restoration on private forestland.
The Forest Service’s Forest Legacy Program works in partnership with states to encourage protection of environmentally important forestlands through easements or land purchases.
The USDA’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program is unique in that it matches the Natural Resources Conservation Service with partners in order to target specific natural resource management goals.
The Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative (REPI) helps fund easements to protect lands around military installations.
The Department of Defense’s Sentinel Landscapes Partnership is meant to align DOD and private landowner conservation priorities near military lands.
The Grassland Easement Program allows the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to acquire easements on grasslands for bird conservation; similarly, the Wetland Easement Program enables it to acquire wetlands to conserve waterfowl habitat.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund provides grants to states to protect Endangered Species Act-listed species. These grants can be used to acquire conservation easements in relevant habitat.