Restore Degraded Land - Grant (Anyone know of anything like this?)

Does anyone know of any land purchase or grant options where one could acquire a degraded piece of land for free or at discount for the intent of living on and restoring the land.

I live in Western Washington and have been looking at buying land for about a decade, but as those of you who live here know, land affordability has decreased a lot over the last several decades.  I've been saving for about 10 years now and increases in land cost seem to outpace my savings and VA home loans aren't interested in loaning for homesteading properties.  Perhaps I'm thinking about this the wrong way though.  I've done a few google searches and have perused around on the local conservation district websites but couldn't find any grant programs like that so I thought I would ask here with the hopes that someone else may have heard of something like this.

Ideally, some sort of program with a fixed time period with targeted restoration goals to hit over a period of x years with the ability to transfer ownership at little to no cost at the end of the period if the goals are met.

I don't know of any program like that per se, but I do know a few people who bought land from a logging company after they were done cutting. The land always needed a LOT of cleanup, but was at a very low price because the company didn't want to clean it up themselves.

It might be worth checking with logging companies in your area to see if they have properties like that that they're hoping to get rid of.

I don't know if any WA specific programs but their are programs for veterans to assist them in farming. I think most of them are about helping you once you have the land though. I just got an email the other day about so the veteran assistance programs for farmers. Nothing that applied to me since we aren't farming our land, just growing stuff for own family.

What do you mean VA loans won't let you get homesteading though? You just have to find a piece of land that has a house that fits their requirements. They don't really care about the land.

This sounds like the kind of thing you are looking for:

https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/conservation-programs/transition-incentives/index

"The Transition Incentives Program (TIP) offers assistance for land owners and operators, as well as opportunities for beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers. It provides land owners or operators with two additional annual rental payments on land enrolled in expiring Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts, on the condition they sell or rent this land to a beginning farmer or rancher or to a socially disadvantaged group. Up to two additional annual CRP payments can be obtained through TIP. New land owners or renters must return the land to production using sustainable grazing or farming methods."

https://www.fsa.usda.gov/state-offices/Washington/index

It looks like you can get more specific information from the local Farm Service Agency. (I did not know that was a thing! Learn something new everyday!)

Besides providing loans to actually buy a farm, WA has the
Debt for Nature Program.

"The Debt for Nature Program, also known as the Debt Cancellation Conservation Contract Program, is available to persons with FSA loans secured by real estate who may qualify for cancellation of a portion of their FSA indebtedness in exchange for a conservation contract with a term of 50, 30, or 10 years. A conservation contract is a voluntary legal agreement that restricts the type and amount of development and farming practices that may take place on portions of a landowner's property. Contracts may be established on marginal cropland and other environmentally sensitive lands for conservation, recreation, and wildlife purposes."