The Saving Our Interconnected Lives Act, or SOIL Act, amends federal farm conservation programs to provide higher payment rates to farmers and ranchers who implement practices that simultaneously improve soil health and wildlife habitat. The bill increases federal cost-sharing payments from current levels to 90 percent of costs for eligible practices such as planting cover crops, establishing riparian buffers, restoring wetlands, and implementing conservation tillage methods through two existing Department of Agriculture programs: the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program. The legislation prioritizes and ranks applications that address both soil and wildlife habitat concerns, and creates a new category of "co-benefit activities" that receive supplemental payments when they improve wildlife habitat while also increasing soil carbon storage and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The bill does not specify new funding amounts or implementation timelines, instead modifying the existing incentive structures within established conservation programs to encourage producers to adopt integrated soil and wildlife conservation practices.
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