§3831c Pilot programs

Summary

The U.S. Department of Agriculture must run a pilot that lets owners put certain expired Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres into a new 30-year contract called a CLEAR 30. Only land coming off CRP contracts that ended on or after December 20, 2018, and that was enrolled for the clean lakes, estuaries, and rivers priority can go into a CLEAR 30. Owners must sign a conservation plan, follow the contract rules, and pause the land’s base history while enrolled. The contract allows needed repairs to public drainage and lets owners control access while keeping routes for restoration and monitoring. It stops changes that would harm wildlife habitat or natural features, and generally limits spraying or mowing except for noxious weed control, emergency pest work, or needed wildlife habitat work. Compatible uses such as hunting, fishing, managed timber harvest, or occasional haying or grazing are allowed if the conservation plan permits them and they protect the conservation values. Payments are made as 30 yearly cash payments equal to what would be paid under the CRP clean lakes, estuaries, and rivers priority. If a contract is broken, USDA can require repayment with interest. USDA will help owners follow the contract, can hire others to help, will write the conservation plan, and may delegate management or monitoring to other agencies or conservation groups. USDA must also run a voluntary soil health and income protection pilot for certain cropland in selected prairie pothole states. Eligible land must have been planted or had a cropping history in each of the three crop years before enrollment, be less-productive than other land on the farm, and not have been in a CRP contract in those three years. Enrollment was allowed through December 31, 2020. Contracts are for 3, 4, or 5 years and require planting the lowest-cost perennial conserving cover crop approved by the State conservationist. Owners normally pay planting costs and receive annual rent equal to 50 percent of the county average rental rate; beginning, limited-resource, socially disadvantaged, or veteran farmers split establishment costs 50/50 with Commodity Credit Corporation funds and get 75 percent of the county rental rate. No more than 15 percent of a farm’s eligible land may enroll, and up to 50,000 total acres may be enrolled in the pilot. Harvesting for seed, haying, or grazing is allowed outside the county’s primary nesting season with conditions: haying must leave adequate stubble, seed harvest makes the land ineligible for federal crop insurance and cuts the rental payment by 25 percent, and nonprofit wildlife groups may pay owners not to harvest. USDA must send an annual report to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees on the enrolled acres, estimated conservation value, and estimated savings from lower commodity and crop insurance costs.