USDA Settles With Farmers, Groups Over Purged Climate Websites

The agency will keep climate risk tools online and send data sets to advocacy groups.

Published on Feb. 24, 2026

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The US Department of Agriculture has reached a settlement with environmental and farmer advocacy groups over access to online tools regarding climate change risks and resilience. Under the proposed order, the climate risk viewer and old-growth forest inventory will remain online and available to the public until the USDA sends all data sets directly to the groups involved in the litigation.

Why it matters

This settlement resolves a legal dispute over the USDA's previous efforts to remove climate change-related information and tools from its public websites, which had drawn criticism from environmental and agricultural groups concerned about access to data on climate risks and resilience.

The details

The settlement requires the USDA to keep the climate risk viewer and old-growth forest inventory online and accessible to the public until the agency provides the full data sets directly to the advocacy groups that were part of the litigation.

  • The settlement was reached on February 24, 2026.

The players

US Department of Agriculture

The federal agency that oversees agricultural and food policies, including programs related to climate change and environmental sustainability.

Environmental and farmer advocacy groups

The plaintiffs in the litigation who sought to maintain public access to the USDA's climate change-related online tools and data.

Judge Margaret M. Garnett

The US District Court judge for the Southern District of New York who is overseeing the proposed settlement order.

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What’s next

The proposed settlement order must be approved by Judge Garnett before it can be finalized.

The takeaway

This settlement represents a compromise that preserves public access to important climate change data and tools while also providing the advocacy groups with the full data sets they sought, resolving a dispute over the USDA's previous efforts to remove such information from its websites.