After NRCS determines the eligibility of the landowner and the land, it can score and rank the parcels for funding. NRCS will use national and State criteria to score and rank eligible parcels. The national ranking criteria will comprise at least half of the ranking score. The State criteria will be developed by NRCS on a State-by-State basis, with advice from the State Technical Committee. Eligible parcels are ranked at the State level.

The national ranking criteria are:

Percent of prime, unique, and other important soils in the parcel to be protected;

Percent of cropland, rangeland, grassland, historic grassland, pastureland, or nonindustrial private forest land in the parcel to be protected;

Ratio of the total acres of land in the parcel to be protected to average farm size in the county according to the most recent USDA Census of Agriculture;

Decrease in the percentage of acreage of farm and ranch land in the county in which the parcel is located between the last two USDA Censuses of Agriculture;

Percent population growth in the county as documented by the United States Census;

Population density (population per square mile) as documented by the most recent United States Census;

Existence of a farm or ranch succession plan or similar plan established to address farm viability for future generations;

Proximity of the parcel to other protected land, such as military installations; land owned in fee title by the United States or an Indian Tribe, State or local government, or by a nongovernmental organization whose purpose is to protect agricultural use and related conservation values; or land that is already subject to an easement or deed restriction that limits the conversion of the land to non-agricultural use or protects grazing uses and related conservation values;

Proximity of the parcel to other agricultural operations and agricultural infrastructure;

Maximizing the protection of contiguous or proximal acres devoted to agricultural use;

Whether the land is currently enrolled in CRP in a contract that is set to expire within one year and is grassland that would benefit from protection under a long-term easement; and

Decrease in the percentage of acreage of permanent grassland, pasture, and rangeland, other than cropland and woodland pasture, in the county in which the parcel is located between the last two USDA Censuses of Agriculture; and

Other additional criteria as determined by NRCS.

State or local criteria as determined by NRCS, with advice of the State Technical Committee, may only include:

The location of a parcel in an area zoned for agricultural use;

The eligible entity's performance in managing and enforcing easements. Performance must be measured by the efficiency by which easement transactions are completed or percentage of parcels that have been monitored and the percentage of monitoring results that have been reported;

Multifunctional conservation values of farm and ranch land protection including:

Social, economic, historical, and archaeological benefits;

Enhancing carbon sequestration;

Improving climate change resiliency;

At-risk species protection; or

Other related conservation benefits;

Geographic regions where the enrollment of particular lands may help achieve national, State, and regional agricultural or conservation goals and objectives, or enhance existing government or private conservation projects;

Diversity of natural resources to be protected or improved;

Score in the land evaluation and site assessment system or equivalent measure for grassland enrollments. This score serves as a measure of agricultural viability (access to markets and infrastructure); and

Other criteria determined by NRCS that will allow for the selection of parcels that will achieve ACEP-ALE purposes.

If NRCS determines that the purchase of two or more agricultural land easements are comparable in achieving program goals, NRCS will not assign a higher priority to any one of these agricultural land easements solely on the basis of lesser cost to the program.

NRCS will rank all eligible parcels that have been submitted prior to an application cut-off date in accordance with the national and State ranking criteria before selecting parcels for inclusion in a ALE-agreement.

NRCS will list the selected eligible parcels in the cooperative agreements with the eligible entities that submitted the parcels, and the cooperative agreements will be signed by NRCS and eligible entities.

If the terms of the ALE-agreement allow for amendments in a subsequent fiscal year, the subsequent fiscal year's selected eligible parcels will be identified on an amendment to the ALE-agreement for that fiscal year. Funds for each subsequent fiscal year's parcels will be obligated with new NRCS and eligible entity signatures on each fiscal year's amendment. Parcels funded on each fiscal year's amendment will have a separate deadline for easement purchase, requesting reimbursement, and funding expiration.