The Floodplain Easement program signup came about quickly with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Landowners nationwide have until March 27 to sign up for the program. Land qualifies if it has been flooded at least once in the past 12 months, or twice in the past 10 years, and it must be in a floodplain.

With the easement, landowners can continue to use the land, but without cropping, building or further manipulating the floodplain. Landowners may enjoy quiet recreational activities, including hunting and fishing, and private access, and will be responsible for property taxes at use value. Dikes and levees will be removed to allow flood waters to flow onto the easement acres. In addition, surface ditches may be filled and shallow wetlands scrapes may be added back to the land to restore its wetland functions. The goal is to acquire floodplain easements on eligible lands and to restore their floodplain function and value to natural conditions.

The program is voluntary, and competitive, with the most critical sites selected for easements. The easements are permanent, and the land remains privately owned. The USDA announced the Floodplain Easement signup last week. The Green County Service Center received word March 13.

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is using the Recovery Act dollars to update aging flood control structures, protect and maintain water supplies, improve water quality, reduce soil erosion, and create jobs. NRCS can acquire easements and restore floodplains to safeguard lives and property in areas that have experienced flooding.

"The flooding we've seen, especially in the last two years, shows how much we need floodplains to take in water and buffer us from these extreme rains," says Pat Leavenworth, state conservationist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Wisconsin. "With funding from the Recovery Act, we can begin restoring floodplains at critical locations and reduce the risk of future flood damages to both life and property."

NRCS wants to allocate the money quickly to help put people to work, said Leavenworth, but also to help farmers who continually fight flooding on cropland, and to reduce the potential downstream damages from flooding.

Interested landowners should contact the NRCS office at the USDA Service Center for their county, as soon as possible, before March 27. The Green County Service Center is located at 1627 4th Ave. West in Monroe, phone (608) 325-4195. Information is available at www.wi.nrcs.usda.gov.