H.R. 1011 — Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act of 2025

This section amends the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP)—which provides payments to agricultural producers for rehabilitating farmland damaged by natural disasters (e.g., fencing, conservation structures)—as follows: (1) revises the heading of subsection (b) by inserting “and other emergency conservation measures” after “fencing”; replaces subsection (b)(1) to authorize producers to receive, prior to work, up to 75% of the payment for replacement or rehabilitation (based on fair market value, as determined by the Secretary) or up to 50% of the payment for repairs (based on fair market value); and (2) adds subsection (c) to specify that eligible wildfires include those not caused naturally (including by the Federal Government) if damage results from the fire's spread due to natural causes.

This section establishes advance payments of up to 75% of estimated costs for emergency forest restoration measures under the Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) for owners of nonindustrial private forest land, prior to implementation. (The EFRP provides financial assistance to restore such lands damaged by natural disasters, such as fire or flood, when no other federal program applies.) Payments are based on fair market value using estimated costs from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Field Office Technical Guide for each state and must be expended within 180 days or returned within a reasonable timeframe determined by the Secretary.