Background
Section 382 of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of
1996, Public Law 104-127, amended the Emergency Watershed Program (EWP)
to provide for the purchase of floodplain easements as an emergency
measure. Since 1996, NRCS has purchased floodplain easements on lands
that qualify for EWP assistance. Floodplain easements restore, protect,
maintain, and enhance the functions of the floodplain; conserve natural
values including fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, flood water
retention, ground water recharge, and open space; reduce long-term
federal disaster assistance; and safeguard lives and property from
floods, drought, and the products of erosion.
Land Eligibility
NRCS may purchase EWP easements on any floodplain lands that have
been impaired within the last 12 months or that have a history of
repeated flooding (i.e., flooded at least two times during the past 10
years). Purchases are based upon established priorities. Landowner
applications for the program far exceed funding. NRCS maintains a list
of easement offers that meet basic eligibility criteria at the time of
application. These offers continue to be eligible pending availability
of funding.
Easement Payments
Under the floodplain easement option, a landowner voluntarily offers
to sell to the NRCS a permanent conservation easement that provides the
NRCS with the full authority to restore and enhance the floodplain’s
functions and values. In exchange, a landowner receives the least of one
of the three following values as an easement payment: (i) a geographic
rate established by the NRCS state conservationist; (ii) a value based
on a market appraisal analysis for agricultural uses or assessment for
agricultural land; or (iii) the landowner offer.
Restoration of the Floodplain
The easement provides NRCS with the authority to restore and enhance
the floodplain’s functions and values. NRCS may pay up to 100% of the
restoration costs. To the extent practicable, NRCS actively restores the
natural features and characteristics of the floodplain through
re-creating the topographic diversity, increasing the duration of
inundation and saturation, and providing for the re-establishment of
native vegetation. The landowner is provided the opportunity to
participate in the restoration efforts. NRCS may pay 75 percent of the
cost of removing buildings when appropriate.
Landowner Use
Landowners retain several rights to the property, including quiet
enjoyment, the right to control public access, and the right to
undeveloped recreational use such as hunting and fishing. At any time, a
landowner may obtain authorization from NRCS to engage in other
activities, provided that NRCS determines it will further the protection
and enhancement of the easement’s floodplain functions and values. These
compatible uses may include managed timber harvest, periodic haying, or
grazing. NRCS determines the amount, method, timing, intensity, and
duration of any compatible use that might be authorized. While a
landowner can realize economic returns from an activity allowed for on
the easement area, a landowner is not assured of any specific level or
frequency of such use, and the authorization does not vest any right of
any kind to the landowner. Cropping is not authorized and haying or
grazing would not be authorized as a compatible use on lands that are
being restored to woody vegetation. |
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