Working Lands Wins: Extension Sets Stage for Farm Bill Debate in 2026

A lot of America’s grasslands and forests are extra than simply postcard backdrops; they’re working lands that maintain individuals and wildlife alike. For instance, well-managed farms and ranches present a number of the finest remaining fowl habitat in North America, which, for grassland birds such because the Western Meadowlark and Bobolink, can imply the distinction between survival and decline. That’s why Audubon’s Wings Over Working Lands Initiative exists: to maintain these lands productive for individuals and wholesome for birds. 

The driving pressure behind a lot of this conservation is the Farm Invoice, the nation’s largest funding in conservation on non-public lands. Usually renewed by Congress each 5 years, the Farm Invoice offers farmers, ranchers, and foresters with the monetary and technical help they should enhance soil well being, water high quality, and wildlife habitat. From grasslands to forests, these packages kind the spine of what we name working lands conservation. 

Final week, Congress handed a bipartisan deal to reopen the federal government and prolong the 2018 Farm Invoice for another yr. This was a essential step to maintain non-public land conservation shifting ahead. The extension ensures that packages just like the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which pays producers to revive and handle grasslands for wildlife, proceed uninterrupted. Different cornerstone packages, together with the Environmental High quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), additionally stay lively. 

Meaning farmers and ranchers can as soon as once more apply for cost-share help, technical steerage, and easement help, and the federal workers who ship these packages administratively and on the bottom will likely be again to work guiding landowners and supporting conservation efforts on non-public lands.  

As a conservationist, it’s good observe to be an optimist. The one-year extension continues most Farm Invoice packages via a minimum of September 30, 2026, offering certainty for producers, conservation companions, and birds. With out this bridge, essential conservation packages would have expired at yr’s finish, jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of acres of fowl habitat and the voluntary conservation methods that assist landowners steward it. 

This extension not solely maintains momentum but additionally units the stage for extra impactful conservation wins forward. In 2026, Congress is predicted to take up a full Farm Invoice reauthorization. That debate provides a possibility to strengthen and increase the packages that maintain bird-friendly grasslands and forests, whereas higher supporting farmers and ranchers, rural communities, and the wildlife that rely upon them. 

As Audubon continues to work throughout the political spectrum and alongside companions in agriculture, our message is straightforward: wholesome working lands imply wholesome fowl populations. With the Farm Invoice extension in place, the trail ahead for birds and the individuals who care for his or her habitats stays open and stuffed with promise.