Project 2025 Targets Conservation Reserve Program and Wetland Protections
Project 2025 proposes eliminating the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a voluntary land-conservation program that pays farmers to take environmentally sensitive land out of production, and overhauling NRCS wetland compliance rules to make it easier for farmers to challenge federal conservation determinations. These proposals, echoed in Senator Rounds' NRCS Wetland Compliance and Appeals Reform Act, would gut voluntary conservation, increase erosion and water pollution, and weaken wetlands protections with no replacement federal safety net.
Project 2025's agriculture chapter doesn't just tweak farm policy — it proposes dismantling the Conservation Reserve Program, the nation's largest and most successful voluntary land-conservation initiative. Since 1985, CRP has paid farmers to convert erodible cropland and environmentally sensitive acres to grass, trees, and wildlife habitat. The payoffs are real: less soil erosion, cleaner water, restored wetlands, and a carbon sink. But Project 2025 calls for eliminating CRP entirely, arguing that idled land — including prime farmland — should be back in production to boost commodity supply and fight food inflation. The claim that CRP idles productive land ignores that much of it is marginal, high-erosion ground where cropping is a losing proposition without heavy subsidy. Farmers who value conservation are left with no federal partner.
The same chapter pushes a parallel deregulatory agenda: overhauling NRCS wetland compliance rules to make it easier for farmers to challenge conservation determinations and stripping protections against 'regulatory overreach.' Senator Mike Rounds' reintroduced NRCS Wetland Compliance and Appeals Reform Act mirrors this blueprint, codifying what the Heritage Foundation has long sought — a process that effectively deregulates wetland conversion. Together, these moves gut voluntary conservation, remove federal oversight of wetland drainage, and weaken enforcement at USDA. Without CRP and robust NRCS compliance, farm-sediment pollution spikes, wildlife corridors fragment, and the federal government abandons its conservation role. The result is not 'freedom' for farmers but a countryside stripped of the very programs that make farming sustainable and profitable over the long term.
The humanitarian alternative
Instead of eliminating the Conservation Reserve Program, Congress should reauthorize and expand it in the next Farm Bill, targeting higher rental rates and longer contracts to maximize conservation benefits and support farm viability. The NRCS wetland compliance process should be streamlined with stronger farmer education and technical assistance, not weakened. Any appeals reform must maintain rigorous environmental safeguards and transparency. Fully fund CRP at a minimum of 27 million acres and invest in climate-smart agriculture practices.
Rollback path — how this gets undone
This action has already been implemented. These are the concrete levers that could reverse it.
- Education Department dismantlement (started via executive action) Rescind the March 20, 2025 EO; Congress would need to pass law to restore full department if functions transferred.
Original source — excerpted
project2025 Project 2025 ch. 11: Department of Education (pp 349-350)"— 316 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise 97. American Bakers Association et al., letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, March 23, 2022, https:/ /www.dropbox.com/s/yfyv04ilkom11zd/USDA%20Letter%20to%20Secretary%20Vilsack%20on%20 Tools%20to%20Address%20Global%20Commodity%20Supply%20Challenges%203.23.22_.pdf?dl=0 (accessed December 15, 2022). It is also necessary to increase food production to mitigate high food inflation. Approximately 25 percent of idled land is considered prime farmland. Therefore, one-quarter of idled land is merely idling, not producing food—and this does not include other land that may viably be used for food production. The Conservation Reserve Program should be eliminated. There are also two issues connected to property rights and fairness that should be addressed: challenging NRCS determinations and problems with USDA easements. To be eligible for many USDA programs, farmers must comply with certain conservation provisions enforced by NRCS. Conservation compliance of wetlands and highly erodible lands consist of federal restrictions that prevent farmers from using parts of their property. If farmers plant cr…"