| I am no expert on the topic. However, it's has always been in my mind that the date for fathering in converted wetlands is 1985. From what I read below, if you farm wetlands converted after the 1985 date, you are ineligible for goverment program payments. If you farm wetlands converted after February 2014, you are not eligible for crop insurance. What I read on the USDA website, there is a process of mitigation for wetlands that are farmed without proper authorization. That can be acres on the same property, or another property, but in the same watershed. I do not know if you are in trouble, or who is, but I suspect those converted acres will have to be mitigated, in order for you continue farming those acres. That is my understanding. "The Swampbuster provision is administered by USDA with technical determinations made by NRCS. Originally authorized in Title XII of the 1985 FSA (16 U.S.C. §§3801 et seq.), Swampbuster makes USDA program participants ineligible to receive select USDA program benefits if they farm on or alter wetlands. Thus, Swampbuster does not prohibit the altering of a wetland but rather disincentivizes doing so by withholding a number of federal payments that benefit agricultural production.
Generally, farmers who plant a program crop on a wetland converted after December 23, 1985, or convert wetlands making agricultural commodity production possible after November 28, 1990, would be in violation of Swampbuster and ineligible for certain USDA benefits (e.g., farm support payments, loans, conservation programs). In addition, farmers who plant or produce an agricultural commodity on a wetland or make agricultural production possible after February 7, 2014, are in violation and also ineligible for federal crop insurance premium subsidies. A number of Swampbuster exemptions exist, including land determined to be PCC. USDA defined PCC in regulation (7 C.F.R. 12.2(a)) as "a converted wetland where the conversion occurred prior to December 23, 1985, an agricultural commodity had been produced at least once before December 23, 1985, and as of December 23, 1985, the converted wetland did not support woody vegetation and did not meet the hydrologic criteria for farmed wetland." "
I don't know if this is helpful to you but I thought I would share this link: Farmable Wetlands Program
Edited by martin 6/27/2026 16:57
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