easements

Some $350 million is available this fiscal year "to help landowners protect and restore key farmlands, grasslands and wetlands across the nation," said USDA. The money will flow through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program for voluntary purchase of easements to keep land in farming and ranching and to protect wildlife habitat and water resources.

Landowners will be paid $328 million for easements that protect farmland from urban sprawl or restore grasslands and wetlands, said the Agriculture Department. The money will flow to 380 projects totaling 129,000 acres nationwide through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. The 2014 farm law combined three easement programs to form the umbrella ACEP. "What this program does is say, where are the needs out there?" said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during a teleconference.