The Farm Bill: A limited-time offer to protect valuable working lands

Old Mission Peninsula, a narrow finger of land rising from a Lake Michigan embayment, supports a historic farming district dotted by vineyards and orchards. Perched high on a ridgeline among protected properties is a fruit farm with high-quality soils and a view of Grand Traverse Bay.

Following three generations of family stewardship, the property’s aging owners, Ginny and Lew Coulter, needed equity from the land for their retirement, as many farmers do — 40% of U.S. agricultural land is held by people over age 65 and will likely change hands in the next 15 years.

“Coulter Farm lies in a prime viewshed that has seen rapid development, and a portion is zoned for residential housing,” says Laura Rigan, farmland program manager at the accredited Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy. Growth has pushed agricultural land values up to $40,000 per acre, making it hard for new farmers to compete against developers. The cherry orchards at Coulter Farm were at risk of getting splintered into housing lots.

But thanks to a creative partnership and with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, GTRLC was able to purchase an agricultural conservation easement on the Coulter Farm before the landowners sold it — in two parcels — to young farmers.

Federal support for agricultural conservation easements is increasingly vital as development nationwide over recent decades has been displacing farms and ranch lands at a rate of roughly 2,000 acres every day. If that trend continues unabated, by 2040 the country could lose an area of productive lands nearly the size of South Carolina, according to research published last year by American Farmland Trust.

“Working lands are really critical to the future of this country,” says Lori Faeth, senior director of government relations at the Land Trust Alliance, noting their contributions to food security, fiber production, carbon storage, economic well-being and community vitality. “Once these properties are converted to other uses, they’re lost.”

Saving more working lands depends in large measure on what happens with the Farm Bill reauthorization, a five-year commitment that covers far more than nutritional assistance benefits, subsidies for commodity growers and crop insurance. The Farm Bill — the current version of which expires this September — is the single largest source of federal funding for voluntary private land conservation. Improvements this year could strengthen the Farm Bill’s capacity to protect irreplaceable farmlands, ranchlands and forested lands across the country.

Farm Bill funds for agricultural land protection flow primarily through two easement programs administered by NRCS: the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, in which projects compete for funds allocated to each state, and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, a more flexible funding source that can be accessed for smaller projects. The 2018 Farm Bill allocated a total of $2.25 billion for ACEP and $1.5 billion to RCPP over five years. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in 2022, will add significant additional funding to both programs.

These federal funding programs are especially valuable in helping older farmers with succession planning, Rigan explains. In the case of Coulter Farm, GTRLC shaped a project that met the financial needs of the long-time owners through a purchased agricultural conservation easement supported by RCPP funds. RCPP can support atypical projects that might not score well on the standardized, statewide criteria used for ACEP.

“For us,” Rigan says, “RCPP has been a huge benefit because our farms are very diverse and have multiple conservation values in addition to preserving agriculture.”

The easement on Coulter Farm lowered the land value sufficiently to make it affordable for young farmers with limited resources to each acquire half of the original farm. One of the new farmers, Raul Gomez, is the son of migrant laborers who worked on a nearby fruit farm owned by the parents of Adele Wunsch, the other young farmer who will now own and farm the adjoining parcel.

“I think if you farm long enough, and manage farmland long enough, your end goal is to farm your own land and own your own farm,” Gomez tells GTRLC. “So it’s definitely exciting to be able to do that, and to be able to say that we have a farm.”

His partner, Emma Smith, adds: “It would absolutely not have been affordable for us without the easement. Neither one of us have inherited wealth, so it would have been impossible for us at this stage in our lives.”

The Land Trust Alliance is working to ensure that the new Farm Bill provides dedicated resources and programs that support historically underserved populations in accessing their own farmland, in part by including a set-aside for beginning, limited resource and socially disadvantaged farmers.

In some cases of farm succession, time to complete an easement purchase may be limited, as farm owners weigh that option against offers from land developers. Rigan hopes that the new Farm Bill will streamline the process by which land trusts can become “certified entities” — trusted partners of the NRCS with less paperwork required for each new project.

The 2008 Farm Bill recognized that such a mechanism could lead to more efficient agricultural land protection, but in the intervening 15 years, only nine entities nationwide have been certified and only for the ACEP Program. “It would be extremely helpful if certified entity status was available through the RCPP,” Rigan says. “It would speed up the process and it would benefit all parties.”

One of the few land trusts that has attained certified entity status, the accredited Athens Land Trust in Georgia, has found “it makes life so much easier,” says Justin Merrifield, ALT’s conservation director. Even as a certified entity, he notes, navigating the federal bureaucracy is a commitment. “There are 85 documents [to complete], and that’s the all-green-lights version,” he says.

Being a certified entity has helped ALT complete five to seven ACEP easement projects annually in recent years, but its staff still can’t keep up with demand from farmers wanting to conserve their land. Like many others in the land conservation community, Merrifield hopes that the new Farm Bill will include an expanded Forest Conservation Easement Program, enabling land trusts to help working forest owners keep their lands intact. In some cases of farm succession, time to complete an easement purchase may be limited, as farm owners weigh that option against offers from land developers. Rigan hopes that the new Farm Bill will streamline the process by which land trusts can become “certified entities” — trusted partners of the NRCS with less paperwork required for each new project.

The 2008 Farm Bill recognized that such a mechanism could lead to more efficient agricultural land protection, but in the intervening 15 years, only nine entities nationwide have been certified and only for the ACEP Program. “It would be extremely helpful if certified entity status was available through the RCPP,” Rigan says. “It would speed up the process and it would benefit all parties.”

One of the few land trusts that has attained certified entity status, the accredited Athens Land Trust in Georgia, has found “it makes life so much easier,” says Justin Merrifield, ALT’s conservation director. Even as a certified entity, he notes, navigating the federal bureaucracy is a commitment. “There are 85 documents [to complete], and that’s the all-green-lights version,” he says.

Being a certified entity has helped ALT complete five to seven ACEP easement projects annually in recent years, but its staff still can’t keep up with demand from farmers wanting to conserve their land. Like many others in the land conservation community, Merrifield hopes that the new Farm Bill will include an expanded Forest Conservation Easement Program, enabling land trusts to help working forest owners keep their lands intact. “Timber is our state’s number-one industry,” Merrifield says, so an easement program targeted to working forests “would go so very, very far in Georgia.”

Land trusts already engaged with ACEP and RCPP easements often develop strong partnerships with state-level NRCS staff. “They can be great allies and can help you navigate the process,” says Rigan.

When staff of the accredited Colorado Open Lands sought to help the owners of the 9,111-acre TL Bar Ranch place an agricultural easement on their land, the NRCS state conservationist recognized the unique opportunity this project afforded and became a strong advocate within the agency in helping secure funds, notes Sarah Parmar, COL’s director of conservation.

That expansive ranch, which adjoins federal properties and lands protected through conservation easements, provides exceptional wildlife habitat and offers migratory corridors for many species. Bald eagles, peregrine falcons, elk, black bears and mountain lions all thrive on the ranchlands, and its conservation through ACEP increased by 30% the critical habitat needed by Gunnison sage-grouse, a rare bird with a population now confined to southwest Colorado and parts of Utah.

Remote ranchlands might seem at low risk from development pressure, but a study identified the TL Bar Ranch in the top two tiers of risk for both primary- and second-home residential development. And with skyrocketing values for water rights in drought-ridden western states, Parmar says, there’s growing pressure to “buy and dry farmland,” tapping water rights for distant urban use. To protect productive irrigated lands in the face of this trend, “we really do need a substantial level of federal funds” for agricultural easements, she adds.

Expanding funding for ACEP will protect not just the future of agricultural production but a ranching heritage going back more than two centuries. The TL Bar Ranch is part of a livestock operation that has been maintained since 1894. Marie Scott, a skilled and far-sighted rancher, began accumulating lands in southwestern Colorado in the 1920s, eventually owning and managing 100,000 acres. Before her death in 1979, she transferred much of her vast acreage to those who would keep the working lands productive, including her ranching staff. The TL Bar Ranch — now conserved through ACEP — is owned and managed by the daughter and son-in-law of Scott’s ranch manager.

Across the country, land trusts that recognize the powerful impact of NRCS easement programs have been participating in the Alliance’s large and diverse Farm Bill Working Group—shaping priorities for the new legislation to become a stronger force for working lands protection. There’s an urgent need now for land trusts to amplify those collective Farm Bill recommendations by inviting congressional members and staff to tour lands conserved through ACEP and RCPP.

“Getting [elected officials] out on the land and hearing straight from landowners has a huge and lasting impact,” reflects Rigan of GTRLC. “It's a great way to showcase NRCS’ investment, share appreciation and describe the continued challenges and need for increased support.”

Parmar has found similar benefits in Colorado, where congressional representatives and U.S. Department of Agriculture administrators have joined land trust staff for field sessions. She notes, “It’s never too soon to start building those relationships to ensure that elected officials can connect with work on the ground!”