There is five million federal dollars on the table for restoring wetlands and floodplains on farmland, and the clock is already running. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has opened a round of funding to help landowners and the organizations that work with them bring tired wetlands and floodplains back to life. Applications close on Thursday, November 19, so any group in our basin thinking about it should start now rather than the week before.
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has 5 million dollars to fund wetland and floodplain restoration, long-term stewardship, and condition assessments on land held in conservation easements. Non-federal entities can apply, which means the conservation districts, watershed groups, and nonprofits that make up much of our network are exactly who this is for. The US Composting Council, which passed the notice along, is pointing out that compost application to rebuild the water-holding capacity of soil counts as an eligible restoration practice. Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, November 19, 2026, through the federal Grants.gov portal, with selections expected by mid December.
What USDA is funding
The money flows through two NRCS programs, the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program and the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, and it is aimed at three kinds of work. The first is restoration itself, the hands-on job of developing and carrying out a plan to repair a wetland or floodplain, from water control structures and levees to tree planting and native seeding. The second is stewardship, the less glamorous but just as important work of maintaining, repairing, and enhancing easements that were already restored so they keep doing their job. The third is assessment, the on-site and off-site checks that tell you whether a restored property is actually holding up and meeting the terms of its easement.
In plain terms, this is money for getting wetlands back, keeping them healthy, and proving the work is working. For a region with as much legacy damage to its land and water as ours, all three matter.
Where compost comes in
The opportunity reached us through the US Composting Council, by way of the Lawrence County Conservation District, and the composting angle is the reason it landed in our inbox. Healthy wetland and floodplain soil has to hold water, and that capacity is exactly what degraded ground loses first. The Council notes that applying quality compost to rebuild soil structure and water-holding capacity is an eligible practice under this funding, and it is encouraging compost producers to connect with the restoration projects that could use it. For a watershed coalition, that is a tidy loop worth noticing, because yard waste and food scraps that would otherwise rot in a landfill can end up rebuilding the sponge that slows a flood and filters a stream.
Who can apply, and how
NRCS says non-federal entities are eligible, and the full list of who qualifies lives on the Grants.gov opportunity listing. For most of our partners that means an organization applies, often in partnership, rather than an individual farmer walking up to the counter. The application runs through Grants.gov, and the deadline is firm: 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, November 19, 2026. NRCS expects to announce its selections by December 17 and to finalize awards after that. These dates are the agency’s own estimates and can shift, so the safe move is to treat November 19 as the date that matters and work backward from it.
If your group has a wetland or floodplain project it has been circling, or a landowner relationship that could turn into one, this is worth a serious look before the month gets away from everyone.
Why it matters for the rest of us
Wetlands and floodplains are the cheapest flood control and water filtration the basin has, and we have spent a century draining, filling, and straightening them. Every acre that comes back is an acre that holds stormwater instead of shoving it downstream toward the next town, and that catches sediment and nutrients before they reach the Mon, the Yough, the Allegheny, or the Casselman. A grant that pays partner organizations to restore that ground, and that rewards putting compost back into it, is the kind of practical, unglamorous win that adds up over time. Five million dollars will not fix the basin, but it will fix some real acres of it, and the groups most likely to put it to good use are already reading this.
Drawn from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service announcement, “USDA to Invest $5 Million to Help Partners and Producers Restore and Protect Wetlands and Floodplains on Agricultural Lands,” and from a US Composting Council grant notice forwarded by the Lawrence County Conservation District. Application details are on the federal Grants.gov opportunity listing. Current as of October 8, 2026.
