§3865c Wetland Reserve Easements

Summary

The Secretary must help landowners restore, protect, and improve wetlands by offering wetland reserve easements, written plans, and technical help. Landowners can enroll with permanent easements, 30-year easements, easements for the longest time allowed by their State, or, for Indian tribes only, 30-year contracts. The program cannot buy easements on land planted to trees under the Conservation Reserve Program unless it helps the wetland goals, or on farmed or converted wetlands if the conversion began after December 23, 1985. Land that changed hands in the prior 24-months is usually not eligible unless it was inherited, lost to foreclosure with a redemption right used, or the Secretary is sure the land was not bought just to join the program. The Secretary sets rules to rank offers to get the most environmental benefit per dollar, with priority for lands that help migratory birds, wildlife, or water quality. To join, an owner must grant the easement, accept the wetland plan, record a deed restriction, get written consent from any lender, follow the easement rules, and permanently retire any farm program base history. Easements let the land be used for compatible activities when the plan allows them, such as hunting, fishing, timber harvest, water management, or occasional haying or grazing, and grazing can be reserved if it fits the plan and payment is reduced to match its value. Easements must allow necessary repairs, drainage work, and access for restoration, but must protect natural habitat and stop actions that would harm wetland function unless the Secretary allows them. For permanent easements the Secretary pays the lower of fair market value, a geographic cap, or the owner’s offer; 30-year easements or contracts pay between 50 and 75 percent of that permanent rate. Payments are cash, may be spread over up to 10 years (or 5–10 years for easements over $500,000, with a possible lump sum), and restoration costs are covered between 75–100 percent for permanent easements and 50–75 percent for 30-year agreements. The Secretary will provide technical help, can hire or partner with others to do work, creates a restoration and monitoring plan for each easement, may allow native or alternative plant communities when appropriate, may delegate many duties to federal or State agencies or qualified groups (but cannot give monitoring or enforcement to conservation organizations), and must pay restoration and annual obligations as soon as possible. The same rules apply to 30-year contracts.