SOMERSET – USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is accepting applications through April 23 for 2018 funding available to protect New Jersey’s grasslands through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). This opportunity is offered through ACEP’s Agricultural Land Easements (ALE) component and is intended to protect high-quality grasslands that are under threat of conversion to cropping, urban development and other non-grazing uses.
Landowners must work with a cooperating entity and do not submit applications for ACEP-ALE directly to NRCS. State and local governments and non-governmental organizations that have farmland or grassland protection programs are eligible to partner with NRCS to purchase conservation easements, and several New Jersey land trust and governmental organizations are available to help interested landowners apply for a conservation easement through the NRCS program.
Contact Gail Bartok, NRCS Assistant State Conservationist for Programs, at 732-537-6042, or Lauren Lapczynski, Easement Specialist, at 732-537-6046 for more information about ACEP-ALE.
More information about ACEP and other NRCS conservation programs in New Jersey can be found online at www.nj.nrcs.usda.gov/programs.
