Title 2: Conservation

What Title II actually covers

Title II is the conservation title. It funds the voluntary programs USDA uses to pay farmers and ranchers for taking environmental action on private land, taking acres out of production, installing best management practices, putting permanent easements on farm and forest land, and partnering with states and nonprofits on watershed-scale projects.

Of the 12 titles in the Farm Bill 2.0, Title II has the most structural change. The headline shift: about $786 million is being pulled out of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) over the budget window and redistributed across other conservation programs. There’s also a brand-new Forest Conservation Easement Program (FCEP) that replaces the Healthy Forests Reserve Program. And precision agriculture gets folded into nearly every program in the title.

The five big shifts

1. EQIP shrinks, other programs grow

EQIP, the largest working-lands conservation program, gets a mandatory funding reduction of roughly $786 million over FY2026–FY2036. That money moves to:

• The new Forest Conservation Easement Program ($227M)
• The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program with AGI changes ($216M)
• The Regional Conservation Partnership Program ($110M)
• Conservation Stewardship Program soil health initiatives ($49M)
• Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act programs ($54M)
• Feral Swine Eradication and Control ($56M)

Net impact on Title II: roughly budget neutral. But the redistribution is real, and it changes which farmers benefit.

2. A brand-new Forest Conservation Easement Program

The Healthy Forests Reserve Program is repealed. In its place, Title II creates two new types of forest easements:

• Forest land easements: protect working forest land from non-forest conversion (similar to ACEP agricultural land easements)
• Forest reserve easements: protect forest ecosystems and species habitat (similar to old HFRP)

Federal share is 50% of fair market value, rising to 75% for socially disadvantaged forest landowners or land of special environmental significance. Permanent easements get 100% of fair market value. The program gets mandatory funding through FY2031.

For private forest landowners, this is the single biggest opportunity in the bill.

3. Precision agriculture gets baked in everywhere

EQIP, CSP, and several smaller programs now define “precision agriculture” and “precision agriculture technology” as eligible practices. EQIP can pay up to 90% of the cost of precision ag practices and technology. CSP includes precision ag conservation activities in the supplemental payment list.

Practical translation: things like variable-rate input application, GPS-guided equipment, soil moisture sensors, drone-based field monitoring, and automated irrigation systems are now formally subsidized through the conservation title.

4. ACEP gets a major eligibility unlock

The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program has been hamstrung by the Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) limit, which excluded operators making more than $900,000 in average AGI unless 75%+ came from farming. Title II exempts ACEP from the AGI limit entirely and excludes ACEP income from the AGI calculation.

It also raises the federal share of agricultural land easements from 50% to 65%, with up to 90% for socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers holding 50%+ ownership.

5. CRP stays put at 27 million acres

The Conservation Reserve Program, the granddaddy of all federal conservation programs, gets reauthorized through FY2031 at its current cap of 27 million acres. No change to the cap. No change to grasslands enrollment (2 million acres). No change to the Farmable Wetlands Program (750,000 acres).

This was politically significant: there was pressure to expand CRP, and there was pressure to shrink it. Title II splits the difference by holding the line.

The deeper conservation moves

Beyond the headline shifts, Title II includes:

• Soil Health Program: a new state assistance grant program under CSP, $5M annual cap per state, $100M total annually FY2027–FY2031.
• U.S. southern border initiative under EQIP: payments to repair agricultural infrastructure damage near the southern border.
• Direct hire authority for NRCS to bring on conservation technical assistance staff without going through standard federal hiring processes.
• Office of Conservation Innovation within NRCS, with up to six staff dedicated to reviewing and modernizing conservation practice standards.
• Wildlife habitat connectivity added as a priority across CRP, EQIP, CSP, and RCPP.
• National Agricultural Flood Vulnerability Study required within two years.
• Emergency Conservation Program advance payments raised, 75% advance for fence replacement, 50% for fence repair. Wildfire eligibility expanded to include human-caused fires (including federally-caused).

Programs covered under Title II

• Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
• Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
• Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
• Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP)
• Forest Conservation Easement Program (FCEP), NEW
• Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)
• Feral Swine Eradication and Control Program
• Emergency Conservation Program

Who Title II matters for

• Forest landowners: The new FCEP is the single biggest opportunity in the bill for private forest owners.
• Large farms previously blocked by AGI limits: ACEP is now reachable.
• Operations adopting precision ag tech: EQIP cost-share rises to 90%.
• Small and beginning farmers: Soil Health Program gives state ag departments a new way to push grants.
• Producers near the southern border: New EQIP initiative for infrastructure damage.

What’s next

Title II is one of the less politically inflammatory parts of the bill, but it has real opposition. EQIP cuts are unpopular with conventional commodity farmers who use EQIP heavily. ACEP’s AGI exemption will draw scrutiny from anyone watching farm subsidy concentration.

In the Senate, expect:

• Pressure to restore EQIP funding
• Possible expansion of FCEP funding
• Fights over whether socially disadvantaged farmer provisions survive
• Possible removal of the U.S. southern border EQIP initiative

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