10. Department of Agriculture · Notable · Needs Congress
Limit permanent USDA conservation easements and bar new ones
Printed page 305 10. Department of Agriculture
“Reform easements. The new Administration should, to the extent authorized by law, limit the use of permanent easements and collaborate with lawmakers to prohibit the USDA from creating new permanent easements.”
What has happened
- Not started
Congress moved the other way and the department has not limited permanent easements. The House-passed farm bill (H.R. 7567, 224-200 on 2026-04-30) not only reauthorizes the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program's agricultural land easements (Sec. 2602) and wetland reserve easements (Sec. 2603) but creates two new easement programs that enroll land through permanent easements: the Forest Conservation Easement Program (Sec. 2701), whose forest land easements are enrolled "through the use of (1) permanent easements; or (2) easements for the maximum duration allowed under applicable State laws", and forest reserve easements, which authorize permanent, 30-year and maximum-state-duration enrolment and set out compensation for permanent easements. No USDA rule or notice in the window limits the use of permanent easements. Cluster G (conservation compliance and easements) in `docs/research/ch-10.md`, round 3 ticket 09 batch 09c, records the queries.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- The enrolment and compensation text of Secs. 2701-2702 was read in the engrossed bill at govinfo.
- The Senate has not acted: H.R. 7567 was received in the Senate on 2026-05-19.
- Also checked: S. 1050 / H.R. 3476, the Forest Conservation Easement Program Act of 2025, the freestanding version of the same program; both are in committee.
- Action
- restrict
- Object
- USDA permanent conservation easements
- ID
- 789