AR Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP): Agricultural Land Easements (ALE)

The Agricultural Land Easements (ALE) program aims to support private and tribal landowners, land trusts, and governmental entities in protecting croplands and grasslands on working farms and ranches from non-agricultural uses through conservation easements. This initiative focuses on safeguarding the nation's food supply by preventing the conversion of productive lands to non-agricultural purposes while also delivering public benefits such as environmental quality, historic preservation, wildlife habitat, and the protection of open spaces. By leveraging local partnerships to match funding, ALE emphasizes long-term stewardship of easements, offering financial assistance to eligible partners to purchase easements that ensure agricultural use and conservation values of the land. The program commits up to 50 percent of the fair market value of the easement for agricultural land and up to 75 percent for grasslands of special environmental significance, aiming to keep lands in agriculture and protect grazing uses and related conservation values.