Swampbuster, Which Protects Millions of Acres of Wetland, Is Under Threat

U.S.|This Land Is His Land. But Is It Wetland?

Driving through the gently sloping terrain of northeast Iowa, there is little to distinguish Jim Conlan’s land, a stretch of light brown dirt sprinkled with tallgrass and maples, from the other fields where soybeans and cornstalks will soon sprout from the ground.

But if Mr. Conlan has his way, his plot in Delaware County will lead to a permanent change in how farmland is used across the country.

For 40 years, to remain eligible for federal crop insurance and other government programs, American farmers have been required to preserve wetlands on their properties. That federal provision, known as Swampbuster, has been credited by environmentalists with keeping countless acres of vulnerable land unplowed, and has been upheld over the decades by Republican and Democratic administrations.

But where conservationists see an essential guardrail against habitat destruction, Mr. Conlan sees government run amok.

Backed by legal groups that support libertarian causes, Mr. Conlan is challenging Swampbuster in federal court, asking not just to open nine acres of wetland in his field to cultivation, but to have that entire provision of federal law deemed unconstitutional. He is seeking to build on a series of recent court decisions that have reduced the role of federal agencies in regulating private land and have rolled back wetland protections.

“The bigger principle is that the federal government doesn’t have the authority to regulate private property,” said Loren Seehase, a lawyer at the Liberty Justice Center who is among those representing Mr. Conlan’s company, CTM Holdings.