Funding for farmers and landowners implementing conservation practices on working lands was included in the Build Back Better Act passed on Nov. 19 by the U.S. House of Representatives. One of the programs established by this legislation is payments for cover crops to farmers and landowners.

As attention on water quality, sustainability, farm income levels, and rural quality of life grows every year, those of us who work in the soil and water conservation arena often wonder what will be required to get the majority of landowners to adopt even the most basic soil health practices. We live in the most altered landscape in the United States, we have nearly the smallest amount of forests and public lands of any state, and we have only half of the topsoil we had in the 1860s. Read more in this article from the Globe Gazette (Mason City, IA).