Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is issuing a final rule for the Highly Erodible Land and Wetland Conservation provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985, as amended (the 1985 Farm Bill). USDA published an interim rule, with request for comments, on December 7, 2018, to clarify how USDA delineates, determines, and certifies wetlands located on subject land in a manner sufficient for making determinations of ineligibility for certain USDA program benefits. USDA received comments from 65 commenters who provided 354 comments in response to the interim rule. Additionally, one of the 65 comments was submitted by an organization that submitted a spreadsheet of 15,094 substantively identical comments. This rule makes permanent many of the changes made in the interim rule, responds to comments received, and makes further adjustments in response to some of the comments received.