Federal Policy

Leading Harvest Sets the Standard

Posted on January 14, 2020 by Land Report Editors

A new coalition of farmland owners and operators will introduce a sustainable agriculture standard in 2020. BY CARY ESTES If Earth is our home, then the kitchen takes up half our house. According to the World Bank, 50 percent of…

Posted in Agriculture, Cary Estes, Conservation, Farming, Feature, Federal Policy, News Desk, Water

Enrollment for CRP Open Until February 28

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Land Report Editors

Farmers and ranchers enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program receive an annual rental payment upon planting long-term, resource-conserving species like improved grasses or trees. The goal is to mitigate soil erosion, bolster water quality, and develop wildlife habitats on marginally…

Federal Judge Blocks Border Wall

Posted on January 8, 2020 by Land Report Editors

On December 10, 2019 Federal District Court Judge David Briones of El Paso blocked the Trump administration’s plan to spend $3.6 billion in military funds on border barrier construction, jeopardizing his promise to erect 450 linear miles of steel fencing…

Posted in Feature, Federal Policy, News Desk, Southwest, Texas

Tenth District Farmland Values Weaken

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Land Report Editors

Conditions for farm credit in the Federal Reserve’s Tenth District worsened in the third quarter of 2019 in spite of a modest price increase in various commodities. Other support, including government payments and loan repayment rates, likewise declined, though it…

2020 Land Investment Expo

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Land Report Editors

It wasn’t too long ago that people turned their attention to Iowa in the dead of winter roughly once every four years. But today, each and every January, you’ll see pundits, presidential hopefuls, economists, entrepreneurs and reality TV stars in…

Land Report December 2019 Newsletter

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Land Report Editors

Highlights from our December newsletter include: A federal judge in El Paso blocked $3.6 billion in border wall funding. The Obamas close on a 29-acre estate in Martha’s Vineyard for $11.75 million. Ikea acquires 42,000 acres of Texas timberland and…

DOJ and DOD Prepare to Condemn Private Lands for Border Wall

Posted on December 5, 2019 by Land Report Editors

NBC News reports that administration officials are preparing the requisite court filings in Texas that will facilitate the condemnation of the private property necessary to construct the border wall. In a departure from typical eminent domain cases, however, the Declaration…

America’s National Mammal Returns to Badlands Habitat for the First Time in More Than a Century

Posted on November 7, 2019 by Land Report Editors

Thanks to a land swap involving the 22,000-acre Don Kelly Ranch, bison have returned to portions of South Dakota’s Badlands for the first time since the 1870s. Engineered by the US Forest Service and the World Wildlife Fund among others,…

Waters of the United States Repealed

Posted on October 7, 2019 by Land Report Editors

The Environmental Protection Agency is repealing an Obama ruling that expanded the definition of the “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers announced that not only was the 2015…

Tagged with: Clean Water Act, EPA, US Army, waters of the United States, WOTUS
Posted in Feature, Federal Policy, News Desk, Water

Let’s Make A Deal

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Land Report Editors

Over the last two decades, water levels in the nation’s largest man-made reservoir, Lake Mead, have fallen to the point that it is at 39 percent of capacity. A similar plight faces the nation’s second largest reservoir, Lake Powell. Drought…