Digest of Federal Resource Laws of Interest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Farm Credit System
Farm Credit System --Public Law 100-233, approved January
6, 1988, (101 Stat. 1568) amends the Food Security Act's Conservation Easement
Program to provide that "other wildlife habitat,"
in addition to wetlands, may qualify for such easements without having to show
the three-year crop history requirement. Authority is provided to the Secretary
of Agriculture to transfer marginal and sensitive inventory lands to any Federal
or State agency for conservation purposes.
These amendments also change the debt cancellation limit to be the difference between the
outstanding loan amount and the current land value. The farm debt provisions are also amended
to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to restructure a debt by "writing-down" the debt to
current land value, in addition to being able to rewrite a debt in exchange for a conservation
easement. Ownership requirements are also changed in relation to qualifying for the
Conservation Reserve.
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