Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Reserve Program

Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Reserve is a state conservation-easement program created by the Reinvest in Minnesota Resources Act of 1986 (Minn. Stat. §§103F.505-103F.531) and administered by the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR), with delivery through county Soil and Water Conservation Districts. Landowners receive a one-time payment, calculated from township average land values or a share of tax-assessed value, in exchange for a permanent or long-term easement retiring marginal cropland, wetlands or prairie from farming and restoring conservation cover. Land stays in private ownership and on the tax rolls.

Funding comes chiefly from the Outdoor Heritage Fund and Clean Water Fund created by the 2008 Clean Water, Land and Legacy constitutional amendment, alongside the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund, state bonding and federal partnerships such as the USDA NRCS Wetlands Reserve Program (delivered jointly as RIM-WRP). BWSR-affiliated county offices report a cumulative total of more than $200 million in state funds securing over 6,000 easements on more than 250,000 acres since the program's start. A documented tranche, RIM-WRP Phase 1 (FY2010), allocated $9,059,500 in Outdoor Heritage Fund money, leveraged over $12.6 million in federal WRP funds, and paid landowners $6.3 million to protect 7,276 acres (2,423 wetland and 4,853 upland acres) across 63 easements between July 2009 and June 2012 — USDA estimated the work sustained 343 jobs. A BWSR project profile for one lake-restoration easement cluster documents over two tons of sediment, 16 pounds of phosphorus and six million gallons of annual runoff kept out of area lakes — illustrative of the program's water-quality logic rather than a statewide total.

RIM has real limitations. An agricultural-press column (Agweek) argues its permanent easements bind future landowners who received no compensation, sometimes removing high-yield farmland from production for good, with no re-evaluation mechanism beyond the initial 15-20 year impact window. The RIM-WRP Phase 1 tranche itself returned $1.14 million unspent, pointing to enrollment friction. No independent, peer-reviewed evaluation of statewide water-quality or wildlife outcomes could be located — the program's evidence base is descriptive and self-reported rather than counterfactual.

Read the full analysis: https://bwsr.state.mn.us/conservation-easements