The plaintiff in this case is a retired Republican Congressman from Michigan whose farm contained a 2.24-acre tract that the defendant claimed was a wetland. The tract at issue was initially drained and tiled in 1964 and crops were grown on tract through at least 1982. In early 1980s, drainage on the tract deteriorated. After the enactment of the Swampbuster provisions contained in the 1985 Farm Bill, the NRCS made wetland determinations on the tract in 1988 and 1993 from which the plaintiff did not appeal. The plaintiff executed Form AD-1026 in 2008 indicating that he was intending to plant crops on the land for which a highly erodible determination had not been made and conduct land drainage or associated activities that had not been evaluated by NRCS. The plaintiff also executed another form that authorized the NRCS to conduct a wetland determination on the plaintiff’s property. In 2008, a wetland determination was made and the plaintiff appealed by requesting reconsideration and mediation. A mediation agreement was entered into in early 2009 under which the NRCS agreed to make a wetland delineation and allow the planting of crops in spring of 2009. The NRCS conducted a delineation after spring crops were planted which resulted in a Final Technical Determination that the tract was converted wetland and that the plaintiff was ineligible for farm program benefits. The plaintiff appealed to the National Appeals Division (NAD) which suspended the appeal while mediation continued. The mediation failed and the appeal proceeded. The NAD Hearing Officer upheld the NRCS determination and noted that the tract could not be determined to be prior converted wetland because it had wetland conditions as of Dec. 23, 1985. The Hearing Officer also noted that plaintiff did not request a minimal effect determination before converting the wetland, but that such a request would have been pointless because USDA-NRCS maintained that the minimal effect exemption only applied where: (1) there was a subsurface drain in an existing wetland that was necessary to drain adjacent cropland; or (2) there was the passage of a center pivot irrigation system through a wetland. Neither of those facts were present. The Deputy Director upheld the NAD Hearing Officer's decision on appeal. The court upheld the NRCS interpretation of 16 U.S.C. §3822(b)(2)(D) that the status of the land as of December 23, 1985 was determinative of the issue irrespective of whether the was land drained and cropped prior to that date and merely reverted to wetland status as a result of deterioration to drainage work citing Horn Farms, Inc. v. Johanns, 397 F.3d 472 (7th Cir. 2005) and noted that the NRCS determination was entitled to Chevron deference. On appeal, the court reversed. The appellate court did uphold the trial court's determination that the "prior converted wetland" exception only applied where the conversion occurred before Dec. 23, 1985, and remained in farming status continuously thereafter and that the USDA was entitled to deference on that determination. As for the minimal effects exemption, the court determined that USDA-NRCS acted arbitrarily be refusing to consider the plaintiff's "minimal-effect" exemption evidence. The court determined that the NRCS position had no support in the law, reversed the trial court on this point, and remanded the case to the NRCS to determine whether the effect of the conversion to the surrounding wetland was "minimal." The appellate court also reversed the trial court for upholding the NRCS position that to qualify for the minimal effect exemption a farmer must agree to a mitigation plan. That, the court said, is not the law. The appellate court also determined that the USDA's discretion to adjust applicable penalties was tied to six specific factors contained in 7 C.F.R. Sec. 12.4(c), and could not rely solely on the plaintiff's failure to mitigate. The court also said that the USDA/FSA was bound by the guidance in its handbook a the time the plaintiff sought penalty reduction, and could not utilize the handbook position that it had created after the plaintiff requested a penalty reduction. Maple Drive Farms Family Limited Partnership v. Vilsack, No. 13-1091, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 5208 (6th Cir. Apr. 1, 2015), rev'g., No. 1:11-CV-692, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176539 (W.D. Mich. Dec. 13, 2012).