How the Natural Resource Conservation Service Supports Military and Community Compatible Use
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The
Natural Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS) natural resources conservation programs help communities reduce soil erosion, enhance water supplies, improve water quality, increase wildlife habitats, and reduce damage caused by floods and other natural disasters. Their programs, including the ones featured in this section can help protect and conserve ecosystems, wild lands, forests, and working agricultural lands. Program goals align well with military and community compatibility objectives and their funding can significantly support Compatible Use Study implementation recommendations, and other local and regional compatibility efforts.
Compatibility Factors relevant to the Natural Resources Conservation Service: Dust/Smoke/Steam, Land Use, Light and Glare, Water Quality
Relevant Programs and Plans
NRCS's
Landscape Conservation Initiatives can help enhance and accelerate voluntary conservation program goals, such as clean
water and air, healthy soil, and better wildlife habitats. Initiatives like WaterSMART, Source Water Protection, Sage
Grouse Initiative, Working Lands for Wildlife, and the Monarch Butterfly Initiative can help farmers improve the environment,
while supporting a vibrant agricultural sector. They can also reinforce broader community goals that address, protecting
surface waters and wetlands, wildlife areas and ecosystems, and pollinator habitats to better support nationally and regionally
important conservation goals that transcend jurisdictional boundaries.
View a map of FY2022 NRCS Landscape Conservation Initiatives.
The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) protects the agricultural
viability and conservation value of eligible lands by limiting uses that negatively affect agriculture and natural resources. The ACEP can protect ranching,
and its related conservation values, by conserving or restoring grazing lands and protecting, restoring, and enhancing
wetlands. Agricultural land easements can also protect the long-term viability of the nation's food supply by preventing
productive working lands from being converted to non-agricultural uses. Such easements provide other benefits by advancing
environmental quality, historic preservation, wildlife habitats, and protected open spaces.
View a factsheet on the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.
The Healthy Forests Reserve Program (HFRP) helps landowners restore, enhance, and
protect forest resources on private lands through easements and financial assistance. HRFP seeks to aid the recovery of
endangered and threatened species under the
Endangered Species Act, improves plant and animal biodiversity, and enhances carbon sequestration. HFRP offers landowners
10-year restoration agreements and 30-year or permanent easements for specific conservation efforts. Tribal lands may
benefit from an additional enrollment option for a 30-year contract. Some landowners may avoid regulatory restrictions
under the Endangered Species Act by restoring or improving habitats for a specified period of time.
View a factsheet on the Healthy Forests Reserve Program.
