A Farm Bill that works for the West

WLA’s 2023 Farm Bill Platform

There are many threats facing working lands in the West today, from drought and fire to economic challenges to increasingly intense development pressure. With every acre of land lost, we lose another piece of our shared future. Yet there are also many success stories of landowners restoring forests and watersheds, innovating grazing management to better align economic and land health outcomes, helping to conserve and recover wildlife species, working with neighbors to develop water sharing agreements, and much more. Many of these stories begin at the grassroots or community level, but have impacts far beyond. 

As landowners and land managers, we recognize that well-managed working lands are the cornerstones of both human communities and the ecosystems on which we all depend. We have a deep, vested stake in these lands and the lived experience of what it means to own and manage land, produce food and fiber, and to steward wildlife and natural resources on a daily basis. 

We are at a pivotal point in deciding how we move conservation policies, water management strategies, the economy and our food systems forward. The right mix of pro-active investments and policies can ensure that the scales tip toward a more sustainable future for both agriculture and conservation. It is critical that the 2023 Farm Bill convey meaningful economic and technical support for ongoing land stewardship, address barriers to enrollment and accessibility, boost collaborative capacity for community-based conservation, and foster holistic, ecosystem-level conservation approaches, beyond just those that would achieve climate objectives alone.