Grassland Reserve Program

The purpose of the Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP) is to provide assistance to landowners and operators to protect grazing uses and related conservation values on eligible private range and pasture lands. The program emphasizes support of grazing operations, maintaining and improving plant and animal biodiversity, and protecting grasslands and shrublands under threat of conversion to cropping, urban development, and other non-grazing uses. Participants voluntarily limit future development and cropping uses of the land while retaining the right to conduct common grazing practices and operations related to the production of forage and seeding, subject to certain restrictions during nesting seasons of bird species that are in significant decline or are protected under Federal or State law. This program was repealed by the 2014 Farm Bill, easements and 30-year contracts previously enrolled under WRP are considered enrolled in the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.

Eligible entities must demonstrate relevant experience and resources to administer a GRP easement. Its charter or mission describes its long term commitment to conserving ranchland, agricultural land, or grassland for grazing and conservation purposes. NRCS evaluates an entities' capacity to acquire, manage and enforce easements; its staffing and the ability of an entity to provide matching funds before entering into a cooperative agreement.

For GRP acquisitions made through a Cooperative Agreement, each eligible entity is required to provide, in cash, at least 50 percent of the purchase price of the conservation easement. Purchase price is defined as the appraised fair market value minus any landowner donation. The landowner donation is not a cash donation, but is merely the reduction in value the landowner will accept as payment for the sale of the conservation easement. Each eligible entity is required to fund its own administrative costs in acquiring easements, such as surveys, appraisals, deed preparation, title searches, and costs incurred in restoring, managing and enforcing the easements.