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Impacts Of The Federal Farm And Ranch Lands Protection Program: An Assessment Based On Interviews With Participating Landowners, J. Dixon Esseks, Brian J. Schilling, Alexander Hahn

Center for Great Plains Studies: Staff and Fellows Publications

Focus of the Study

From mid-February to mid-May 2012, a research team at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln surveyed 506 owners whose agricultural land was protected from development through conservation easements that were funded in part by USDA’s Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP). This program “provides matching funds to help purchase development rights to keep productive farm and ranchland in agricultural uses. Working through existing programs, USDA partners with State, tribal, or local governments and non-governmental organizations to acquire conservation easements or other interests in land from landowners, USDA provides up to 50 percent of the fair market easement …