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http://www,wral.com/nekvs/86273()/'?Ltse=prini <br />M, - com, <br />Orange County Easement Helping Preserve Farmland <br />These days, farmland near Research Triangle Park is more valuable as pasture for houses than horses. <br />Rising taxes and dropping farm commodity prices are squeezing farmers out of business. <br />rrT <br />Victor Walters, Jr. walks among the <br />cattle on his family's 400 -acre farm. <br />Seventy acres will be preserved thanks <br />to an easement program. <br />Now, Orange County is trying a new approach: Paying a farmer <br />to keep his land a farm. <br />On Monday, Victor Walters, Sr. signs over his right to sell his <br />farm to developers. In exchange, Orange County and the state <br />will pay him $215,000. <br />In the 1970s, before anyone could have imagined growth in the <br />area, Walters' daughter -in -law joined an agricultural preservation <br />committee. <br />"Prime farmland is an irreplaceable physical and economic asset <br />to Orange County," says Elizabeth Walters. <br />She pushed for a buy out program that pays farmers to give up their right to sell their farm to a <br />developer. This year, the first easement in Orange County went to her father -in -law. <br />Walters, 92, and his son, Victor, Junior, 65, have worked the farm for decades. They think the program <br />is an excellent way to keep it in the family. <br />The Walters could have sold their land <br />to a developer for as much as $20,000 <br />an acre <br />"It helps my father's peace of mind, it helps the county to <br />preserve some open space, and me, there's a good chance I'll <br />never have a reason to sell it. It guarantees that I've got to <br />continue to look after it," says Walters, Jr. <br />The Walters own over 400 acres of farmland. They could have <br />sold it for as much as $20,000 an acre to a developer. <br />After the deal goes through, 70 acres of their farm will be <br />permanently off limits to developers. <br />Half of the money for the easement will come from Orange <br />County taxpayers, and half from the state's small farmland preservation fund. <br />The farm will probably make the land around it even more valuable, as farms become more and more <br />rare in the future. <br />Reporter: Chip Muller <br />Photographer: Claris Ray <br />OnLine Producer: Michelle Singer <br />t�tt <br />7/9/nnn1 1) -M PM <br />