Last year, USDA adjusted the wetland determination process. Minnesota-based Rinke Noonan Law attorney Kale Van Bruggen says famers can recertify wetland determinations or request changes. NRCS wetland determination maps are also connected to the EPA’s Waters of the United States Rule. In 1993, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers added a prior converted cropland exemption to their WOTUS definition. Under the WOTUS jurisdiction, acres determined to be prior converted cropland could not be wetlands. “The current administration released its pre-publication version of the rule that it’s going to be an issue. That draft will retain the prior converted cropland exemption. It’s important for farmers to determine if that applies to them and get those maps corrected now. If they are prior converted cropland acres, farmers can use that to prove to the agencies those aren’t subject to WOTUS.”
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