CREP Easement Eligibility Update

 

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) enjoys partnering with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on a variety of Eastern Shore conservation programs. One of these programs is the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) Permanent Easement opportunity. Under this program, landowners who have existing 10-15 year Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) or CREP contracts with the Farm Service Agency, may elect to enroll those contract acres, along with additional habitat on the property, into a permanent conservation easement. The easement requires the CRP/CREP contract area be maintained as CRP/CREP in perpetuity, otherwise the landowner must allow the CRP/CREP area to succeed into forest. As a legal requirement, the contract acres will become ineligible to re-enroll in the CRP/CREP contract program once they are part of a CREP permanent easement. In exchange, the landowners are eligible for a large, upfront payment for the purchase of the conservation easement over these lands.

 

As of this year, DNR has made the CREP Permanent Easement program available statewide. Earlier this summer, DNR sent out general outreach letters to all landowners in previously unserved counties who have active CRP/CREP contracts on their properties to inform them of the availability of this program. (As an important note, ESLC has become aware that existing easement landowners enrolled in CRP/CREP may have also received a DNR letter, but these properties are not eligible for this particular funding as they are already protected by a perpetual, permanent conservation easement.)

 

Wonderfully, ESLC has seen a drastic influx in interest from the community since these letters went out and we are excited to work with as many landowners as possible to determine if the CREP Permanent Easement program is right for their properties. Due to higher-than-normal demand, ESLC requests that any interested landowners please send the following information to David Satterfield at dsatterfield@eslc.org:

 

  • Name
  • Phone Number
  • Email Address
  • Property Identifier (Address, Tax Map and Parcel, and/or Tax ID)
  • Name of Ownership of the Property (if different than your own)
  • Any CRP/CREP Documentation available (maps would be perfect)

 

Once received, ESLC staff will process these requests and will respond with additional details. We appreciate your patience and understanding, as response times may be longer-than-normal due to current ESLC project workloads. If you have questions regarding this program in the meantime, we recommend you review the FAQ for the CREP Permanent Easement program from DNR, which can be accessed here: https://dnr.maryland.gov/land/Pages/crep.aspx.