Forest Conservation Easement Program Act of 2025

This bill sets up a new program at the Department of Agriculture to keep forests as forests. It uses long-term agreements (called easements) to limit development and support active forest management on private land and land owned by Indian Tribes, while landowners keep ownership and can keep working their forests. The program’s core goals are to protect working forests, restore and improve wildlife habitat (especially for endangered or at‑risk species), and reduce forest break‑up across the landscape.

There are two ways to take part. Approved partners can get cost‑share funds to buy forest land easements, and landowners can work directly with the Secretary to create “forest reserve” easements that focus on habitat gains. Projects that most help endangered species come first, with extra credit for reducing fragmentation, restoring native forests, and storing more carbon .

• Who is eligible: Private land and land owned by an Indian Tribe may qualify; federal and state‑owned land does not. Land isn’t turned away just because it’s small, who owns it, or because mineral rights are separate.
• How projects are chosen: Priority goes to helping endangered or at‑risk species; also to projects that reduce forest break‑up, restore native forests, and increase carbon storage.
• What you get paid: For permanent easements, landowners are paid the full loss in land value caused by the easement. For 30‑year options, they receive 50%–75% of that amount .
• Cost‑share with partners: When partners buy easements, the Federal share is usually 50%, and can be up to 75% for forests of special environmental importance or for land owned by socially disadvantaged landowners; the rest can come from cash, donations, or related costs.
• Help with habitat work: The program can also pay for on‑the‑ground habitat practices—up to 100% on permanent easements and 50%–75% on shorter ones—capped at $500,000 per agreement .
• Extra protections and options: Landowners doing habitat work that benefits listed species may receive “safe harbor” assurances under the Endangered Species Act, and the program cannot block participation in environmental services markets that add conservation benefits .
• Indian Tribe option: For acreage owned by an Indian Tribe, 30‑year contracts are allowed and paid like 30‑year easements; permanent easements are also available.
• Timing and transition: The older Healthy Forests Reserve Program is repealed, but current contracts and easements stay valid and can be finished; lands already enrolled are treated as enrolled in the new program. The bill authorizes $100 million per year from 2025 through 2029 .