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MONTANA FARM AND RANCH LANDS PROTECTION PROGRAM (FRPP) APPLICATION DEADLINE ANNOUNCED

March 19, 2009

For More Information:
Dennis Dellwo, 406-587-6748

Bozeman--Officials of the Montana Natural Resources and Conservation Service (NRCS) announce the sign-up for the amended Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP). Applications will be accepted through May 8, 2009. The FRPP is a voluntary program to help producers preserve their agricultural land. NRCS provides matching funds to state, tribal, and local governments and nongovernmental organizations’ agricultural land protection programs to purchase easements.

There were amendments made to the FRPP in the 2008 Farm Bill including:

  • Expanding the program’s purpose to protect agricultural lands by limiting nonagricultural uses,
  • Shifting the program’s purpose from purchasing easements to facilitating the purchase of conservation easements by qualified entities,
  • Requiring establishing a certification process under which the Secretary of Agriculture directly qualifies certain entities as being certified,
  • Requiring eligible entities to have a plan for administering easements that meets the purposes of the FRPP,
  • Requiring the entity to provide a share of the cost not less than 25% of the acquisition purchase price,
  • Allowing inclusion of forestlands as an eligible land use,
  • Allowing inclusion of forestlands that contribute to the economic vitality of an agricultural operation or serve as a buffer to protect the agricultural operation, and
  • Changing the Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) provision for conservation programs to a cap of $1 million.

To qualify the farm or ranch land:

  • Must be privately owned land,
  • Contain at least 50% of prime, unique, statewide, or locally important soils, OR
  • Contain historical or archeological sites that are:
        Consensus determined by the State Historical Preservation Office or the Tribal Preservation Office, or
        Formally nominated to the National Register, AND
  • Be part of a pending offer from a state, tribal, or local government, or a nongovernmental organization’s agricultural land protection program,
  • Must have a conservation plan on Highly Erodible Land acres, and
  • Must contain sufficient acres to sustain agricultural production.

For application information, go to http://www.mt.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/frpp/index.html or contact your local NRCS Field Office.

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