256 
sive agricultural commodities or dryland 
farming; and 
‘‘(ii) irrigation system improvement 
and irrigation efficiency enhancement. 
‘‘(C) Drought mitigation. 
‘‘(D) Flood prevention. 
‘‘(E) Water retention. 
‘‘(F) Habitat conservation, restoration, 
and enhancement. 
‘‘(G) Erosion control. 
‘‘(H) Forest restoration, including recovery 
of threatened and endangered species, improve-
ment of biodiversity, and enhancement of car-
bon sequestration. 
‘‘(I) Other related activities that the Sec-
retary determines will help achieve conservation 
benefits. 
‘‘(3) ELIGIBLE
PARTNER.—The term ‘eligible 
partner’ means any of the following: 
‘‘(A) An agricultural or silvicultural pro-
ducer association or other group of producers. 
‘‘(B) A State or unit of local government. 
‘‘(C) An Indian tribe. 
‘‘(D) A farmer cooperative. 
‘‘(E) An institution of higher education. 
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‘‘(F) A municipal water or wastewater 
treatment entity. 
‘‘(G) An organization or other nongovern-
mental entity with an established history of 
working cooperatively with producers on agri-
cultural land, as determined by the Secretary, 
to address— 
‘‘(i) local conservation priorities re-
lated to agricultural production, wildlife 
habitat development, and nonindustrial pri-
vate forest land management; or 
‘‘(ii) critical watershed-scale soil ero-
sion, water quality, sediment reduction, or 
other natural resource concerns. 
‘‘(4) PARTNERSHIP
AGREEMENT.—The term 
‘partnership agreement’ means an agreement be-
tween the Secretary and an eligible partner. 
‘‘(5) PROGRAM.—The term ‘program’ means 
the Regional Conservation Partnership Program es-
tablished by this subtitle. 
‘‘SEC. 1271B. REGIONAL CONSERVATION PARTNERSHIPS. 
‘‘(a) PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENTS AUTHORIZED.— 
The Secretary may enter into a partnership agreement 
with an eligible partner to implement a project that will 
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assist producers with installing and maintaining an eligi-
ble activity. 
‘‘(b) LENGTH.—A partnership agreement shall be for 
a period not to exceed 5 years, except that the Secretary 
may extend the agreement 1 time for up to 12 months 
when an extension is necessary to meet the objectives of 
the program. 
‘‘(c) DUTIES OF PARTNERS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Under a partnership agree-
ment, the eligible partner shall— 
‘‘(A) define the scope of a project, includ-
ing— 
‘‘(i) the eligible activities to be imple-
mented; 
‘‘(ii) the potential agricultural or non-
industrial private forest operations af-
fected; 
‘‘(iii) the local, State, multi-State or 
other geographic area covered; and 
‘‘(iv) the planning, outreach, imple-
mentation and assessment to be conducted; 
‘‘(B) conduct outreach and education to 
producers for potential participation in the 
project; 
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