Conservation title benefits waterfowl, wildlife, and people
WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 30, 2026 – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 7567, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 – also known as the Farm Bill. It passed with bipartisan support, 224-200. Ducks Unlimited (DU) has a long history of working with farmers, ranchers, and other private landowners across the country to enhance and restore millions of acres critical to waterfowl and other wildlife habitats.
The Farm Bill’s voluntary and incentive-based conservation programs are the largest single federal source of funding for private land conservation and are essential to DU’s mission. These programs help producers steward the land while making farms more profitable.
“The voluntary, incentive-based programs included in the Farm Bill’s conservation title are the foundation for our partnerships with the agriculture community,” said DU CEO Adam Putnam. “Landscape-level conservation can only be achieved by working collaboratively with private landowners and producers to conserve habitat while keeping land in production. These programs enable producers to be good stewards of their land while continuing to feed and supply the nation. We’re appreciative of Chairman Thompson and the House Agriculture Committee for leading this effort to pass a bipartisan Farm Bill, and we look forward to further progress in the Senate.”
Some DU priorities included in the Farm Bill Conservation Title include:
- Maintains a historic investment of $10 billion in conservation funding
- Codifies stewardship of repair, maintenance, and enhancement activities in the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program – Wetland Reserve Easement (ACEP-WRE)
- Creates certainty for participants while streamlining the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP)
- Emphasizes the need to restore and maintain the hydrology functions of floodplain easements in the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program
For more on Ducks Unlimited’s Farm Bill priorities, visit our dedicated Farm Bill webpage here.
Visit the DU Media Toolkit page for essential resources to help explain and promote Ducks Unlimited’s conservation mission.
For more information, visit www.ducks.org, and be sure to follow DU’s Twitter feeds – @DucksUnlimited and @DUConserve – to get the most up-to-date news from Ducks Unlimited.
Ducks Unlimited Inc. is the world’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving North America’s continually disappearing wetlands, grasslands and other waterfowl habitats. Established in 1937, Ducks Unlimited has restored or protected more than 19 million acres thanks to contributions from more than a million supporters across the continent. Guided by science, DU’s projects benefit waterfowl, wildlife and people in all 50 states. DU is growing its mission through a historic $3 billion Conservation For A Continent comprehensive campaign. Learn more at www.ducks.org.
Read the full article here
