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Agricultural Conservation Easement Program

Wetland Reserve Easements

Saving the 

Nation’s Wetlands
Natural Resources Conservation Service

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25 Years of Wetland Easements

Impacts of Farm Bill Program on 

Wetlands

Wetlands are one of nature’s most productive 

ecosystems. They clean and recharge 

groundwater; reduce the damaging impacts of 

floods; enhance wildlife habitat; sequester carbon; 

and create diverse recreation opportunities such 

as hunting, fishing, birdwatching and canoeing.

The greatest potential for wetland restoration 

exists on private lands, since 75 percent of the 

nation’s wetland are located on private and tribal 

lands. Thousands of landowners have voluntarily 

taken big and small actions every day to protect, 

restore and enhance wetlands and wildlife habitat.

For more than 20 years, USDA’s Natural 

Resources Conservation Service’s former 

Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) was used 

to enroll record numbers of acreage to protect, 

restore and enhance wetlands on private 

lands. During that time, private landowners and 

entities such as land trusts and conservation 

organizations enrolled 2.7 million acres through 

14,500 agreements for a total NRCS and partner 

investment of $4.3 billion in financial and technical 

assistance. NRCS and its partners used the former 

WRP to ensure they achieved the greatest wetland 

functions and values, along with optimum wildlife 

habitat, on every enrolled acre.

The 2014 Farm Bill consolidated WRP into the 

Agricultural Conservation Easement Program’s 

Wetland Reserve Easement component to 

streamline program administration and make it 

easier for landowners to participate in the program. 

With NRCS financial and technical assistance, 

states, non-governmental organizations and tribes 

will continue to leverage resources to achieve 

maximum benefits with wetlands restoration and 

protection and wildlife habitat.

The cumulative benefits of this wetland 

conservation work have resulted in tremendous 

environmental, social and economic benefits 

nationwide. 

For example, wildlife habitat created from wetland 

easements can help prevent listing under the 

Endangered Species Act and accelerate the 

recovery of at-risk species. Both the Oregon chubb 

and Louisiana black bear were delisted due to 

the many landowners who enrolled their land into 

conservation easements.

In Florida, ranchers are actively engaged in 

conservation projects to protect the Everglades, 

the primary source of drinking water for 7 million 

Floridians. Ninety-five percent of the 100,000 

acres enrolled into easements during the past 

five years in Florida were located in the Northern 

Everglades Watershed.

Conservation wetland easements will continue to 

serve as a critical tool in a landowner’s toolbox for 

wetland restoration, protection and enhancement.
Agricultural Conservation Easement Program

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Wetland Benefits

Easements that restore wetlands produce a wide range of benefits valued by humans. Some of the 

more important benefits include:

• More habitat for fish and wildlife that includes threatened and endangered species

• Higher water quality due to the wetland’s filtering of sediments and chemicals

• Less flooding from wetlands acting as small reservoirs catching runoff water from farm fields

• Higher groundwater recharge rates in nearby shallow aquifers

• More biological diversity within the wetland and nearby areas

• New educational, scientific and recreational activities for local schools and recreationists such as 

 birders and hikers

• Ecologically important open space protected for several decades or more

Up to one-half of all North American bird species feed or nest in wetlands.

Wetlands and Wildlife
Natural Resources Conservation Service

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Wetlands in Action

NRCS provides assistance directly to private landowners and Indian tribes 

to restore, protect, and enhance wetlands through the Wetland Reserve 

Easement program. The landowner voluntarily limits future use of the land, 

yet retains private ownership. NRCS and the landowner work together to 

develop a plan for the restoration and maintenance of the wetland.

Targeted Efforts to Restore Wetlands 

Helped Louisiana Black Bear Recover

On the brink of extinction in 1992, the Louisiana 

black bear was added to the threatened and 

endangered species list. 

At the time of listing, more than 80 percent of 

suitable Louisiana black bear habitat was lost. 

The bottomland hardwood forests of the Louisiana 

Delta were cleared for row crop production; roads, 

homes and towns were built; and humans began 

encountering the shy, but curious, Louisiana black 

bear more often. The habitat fragmentation, or 

isolation of suitable patches of hardwood bottoms, 

affected the bears’ ability to travel for food, to find 

mates or simply to relocate to a more desirable 

spot to live. 

Affectionately named the “Teddy Bear” after 

President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot 

one on a south Mississippi hunting trip, the 

Louisiana black bear is one of 16 subspecies of 

American black bears. 

Sadly, when the bear was listed there were only 

three black bear breeding populations left in 

Louisiana, isolated from each other with as few as 

200 bears left. With the vast majority of land in the 

critical Louisiana black bear habitat privately 

owned, the fate of the “Teddy Bear” would lie 

in the hands of private individuals committed to 

voluntary protection and restoration of the historic 

bottomland hardwood ecosystem.

In the 23 years since the listing of the Louisiana 

black bear, NRCS has worked with private 

landowners who have voluntarily enrolled and 

restored over 215,000 acres in wetland easements 

in the prime habitat areas for the bears. Add to 

that more than 232,000 acres in the Conservation 

Reserve Program, as well as additional habitat 

management activities by these landowners in the 

14 parishes or counties, and nearly half a million 

acres of habitat have been restored.

The primary habitat corridors have been 

reconnected, and there are as many as 1,000 

Louisiana black bears roaming the hardwood 

bottoms of the state with four breeding populations 

and a 99 percent chance of maintaining those 

numbers. 

Because of proactive steps by private landowners 

to restore and improve habitat, the U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service removed the Louisiana Black Bear 

from the list.
Agricultural Conservation Easement Program

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Restoring Louisiana black bear populations is part of a broader effort to restore the nation’s wetlands.
Natural Resources Conservation Service

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Wetlands Improve Wildlife Habitat, 

Water Quality

A unique wetland north of Charles City is helping 

to filter out upland sediment and other chemicals 

from ag runoff flowing into the Little Cedar River, 

and fulfilling a family’s goals by preserving the land 

and providing a wildlife haven on their farm.

The 200-acre farm in northeast Iowa has been in 

the family since the 1940s. To preserve the family 

farm, Carol Savage enrolled a large portion of it – 

140 acres – into a permanent wetland easement.

The wetland restoration includes 12-acre pool of 

water that attracts waterfowl and other migrating 

birds and nesting animals. 

The wetland also helps improve water quality. “We 

are basically eliminating the potential for nutrients 

and sediment to runoff into the river because there 

is no agricultural activity, and we have all of these 

management practices protecting water quality,” 

Savage said.

Restored Wetlands Provide Critical 

Habitat for Migratory Birds, Many 

Other Species

When wildlife take up residence on your land, it is 

nature’s way of telling you that all is well. This is 

definitely the case for landowners Jim and Lyn Des 

Marais, who are now working to restore a 500-acre 

wetland in Vermont. 

As part of restoring the wetland, the duo is 

plugging ditches, enabling water to flow again 

naturally throughout the wetland. In addition, 

they will create depressions in the landscape 

to enhance habitat for migratory waterfowl, 

shorebirds and amphibians. 

The Des Marais wetland is ideal for birds because 

the farm offers a variety of habitats, including 

hay and grasslands, and as a result, the diversity 

of the birds is extensive. The wetland is home 

to ducks, rails, herons, bald eagles, peregrine 

falcon and other woodland hawks. They have also 

spotted bobolinks, meadowlarks, golden-winged 

warblers, blue herons, bald eagles, kingfishers and 

swallows. 

Once restored, the Des Marais wetland will be Vermont’s largest 

privately owned wetland easement. Photo by Amy Overstreet.

Geese fly over the constructed wetland. Photo by Jason Johnson.

Wetland Successes
Agricultural Conservation Easement Program

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Conservation Easement Helps 

Protect Fish

Oregon landowner, Dave Budeau, wanted to 

restore and protect a wetland. When the wildlife 

biologist searched for a new home in 2003, his 

passion for wildlife and nature led him to purchase 

what may have seemed to some as an unfriendly 

plot of land for wildlife. 

The pasture in Marion County, Ore., that caught 

Budeau’s eye was dominated by one species of 

plant, bentgrass. Bentgrass can be invasive in 

the state’s wetlands, but Budeau knew the land 

could be transformed into a wetland haven that 

gives sanctuary to a variety of wildlife, including a 

threatened Oregon fish.

Through ACEP, Budeau began restoring the 

wetlands in 2008, converting an existing pond and 

other low-lying areas into wetlands. The restoration 

work created the ideal habitat for the Oregon chub. 

Scientists with NRCS and U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service monitored the depth and temperature 

of Budeau’s ponds for two years to ensure they 

provided suitable habitat before introducing 623 

chub in 2010. By May 2012, more than 10,000 

chub lived in the ponds.

Wetlands like the ones on Budeau’s property were 

integral to the increasing chub population. This 

small minnow was the first fish in the history of the 

Endangered Species Act to be removed from the 

list of threatened and endangered list because of 

recovery.

“This is the (conservation) easement we all dreamed of,” Budeau said. “It turned out as good as I could have ever expected.”
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