Bill > HR3424

This bill, the Forest Conservation Easement Program Act of 2023, would amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a forest conservation easement program. The key provisions of the bill are: - It creates a new "Subtitle I - Forest Conservation Easement Program" within the Food Security Act of 1985 to establish a program for the conservation and restoration of eligible forest land through the acquisition of conservation easements or other interests in land. - The program would have purposes including protecting the viability and sustainability of forest land, enhancing forest ecosystems, promoting habitat restoration, maintaining biodiversity, and enhancing carbon sequestration. - The bill defines eligible land, forest land easements, and forest reserve easements, and provides cost-share assistance to eligible entities for acquiring forest land easements and to landowners for implementing forest reserve easement plans. - It also repeals the existing Healthy Forests Reserve Program and provides for the transitioning of existing contracts and agreements under that program to the new Forest Conservation Easement Program. - The bill authorizes $100 million per year in funding for the Forest Conservation Easement Program for fiscal years 2024 through 2028.