The Agricultural Land Easement (ALE) is an option that can be used to protect native grasslands. To establish an ALE, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) works with a land trust to fund the purchase of a permanent easement from a landowner in exchange for a cash payment. The ALE is an essential tool for landowners interested in maintaining agricultural uses of their properties in perpetuity.
Wildlife Mississippi and the Mississippi Land Trust (MLT) are interested in working with landowners who want to protect native grasslands. Wildlife Mississippi and the MLT will provide assistance to landowners with an interest in restoring and protecting the native grasslands and prairies of the state. The prairies are the Black Prairie and the Jackson Prairie. Grasslands can provide essential forage for cattle operations as well as important wildlife habitat.
Today, less than 1% of the Black Prairie remains; however, remnants can be found in cemeteries, 16th section lands, on the Tombigbee and Bienville national forests, and a few private tracts of land. According to the Mississippi Natural Heritage Program, Mississippi prairies are “critically imperiled” within the state due to extreme rarity or factors making their biota vulnerable to extirpation. The conservation and restoration of southeastern prairies have not been common practices until recently. Funding for prairie conservation and restoration has increased in the past decade through various organizations and agencies.
Native prairies are commonly used for grazing cattle or producing hay. Many of these working lands have been converted to non-native plant species to increase cattle weight gain or hay production. However, researchers have found ways that native grasses can surpass non-native grasses economically and environmentally in many situations. Some of the main factors making this possible include the drastically lower amount of fertilizer and water required by native grasses to produce similar amounts of food or weight gain on cattle when compared to common non-native grasses. This becomes more important in times of drought. Experts have presented numerous ways to integrate the goals of these working lands with the conservation goals.
Landowners who participate in the grasslands of special significance option of the ALE will be paid approximately 75% of the appraised value of the perpetual easement. Limited grazing rights are permitted on the properties included in the ALE, and haying is also allowed after the nesting season for birds. Prohibitions are intended to prevent disturbance of the soil for row crops or other agricultural commodities.
The MLT’s obligations under the program are to protect and restore grasslands, hold easements for participating landowners, and executing easement documents. In addition, the MLT conducts periodic inspections of properties to ensure compliance with easement terms. Landowners who violate easement terms may be required to repay funds they have received under the program, plus interest.
