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September 2000 Policy for DNR, coordinating federal and state program policy. Price said POS emphasis will be on improving manage- ment of land acquisition. Conservation easement veteran Pam Bush now directs the Rural Legacy Program, with three administrators r assisting grant recipients. "The focus is+ now on production, on getting acres protected," Bush said. "We're all geared up to get sponsor projects to the Board of Public Works." The program, formerly under POS, has been beset with slow activity. A new Rural Legacy policy to reallocate funds that .sponsors have been unable to spend from the pro- gram's first year in 1998 is being announced. Requests for reallocated funds would be due this fall, Bush said, for grant agreements that will expire in January. However, "our first priority is to get the funds spent by the people they were given to." The reorganization has been "very well received," Nelson said. "It will significantly raise [the programs'] profile and give them the visibility they de- serve." Anne Arundel County is settling on its first installment purchase agreements (IPAs) this month. It is the fourth Maryland county to use IPA. A task force charged to study the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation's administration of the farmland preservation program has not yet met; it is to report to the governor in December. In Delaware ... The Delaware program, with uncertain future funds, has a certain big advantage in getting value for its dollars — landowners are selling easements at an average of 53 percent below appraised value. In Kent County, making up the middle of the state, easement purchases in a desig- nated rural area run 64.8 percent below their appraised value. Here, per -acre values range from about $625 to $800, according to administrator Stewart McKenzie. The program currently has 53,783 under permanent easement. Page 7 farmland preservation report continued from page 6 ownership is likely to grow in the future, both to protect landscapes and to provide affordable housing. Readers of FPR familiar with the public purchase of develop- ment rights will recognize that a private landowner voluntarily sells an interest in private real estate to a state or local government. Is the property then still private property? Yes, but there are restric- tions to the property that are monitored and enforced by govern- ment agencies for the benefit of the public -at- large. On the other hand, grazing rights to public lands in the west transfer with a privately -owned ranch; they cannot be purchased directly from the federal government. Property and Values is a timely and thought - provoking book. It is a welcome antidote to the property rights absolutists and the "it's my land, I can do what I want with it" crowd. Geisler and Daneker are to be commended for compiling a volume of 13 essays that express the social goals and functions of property, not just property as investment or property as commodity. The book has a decidely academic tone, but there are some good practical examples of the third type of ownership, such as the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (a state agency that splits its money between low- income housing and farmland preser- vation), the community land trust movement with its goal of creat- ing forever affordable housing, and state trust lands in the west that are managed for income as well as public benefit. Margaret Grossman's essay on leasing farmland emphasizes the increase in absentee landlords and the separation of farm owner- ship from control. Ford Runge et al. note that "in agriculture, giv- ings far exceed takings." That is, government farm programs have benefitted farmers far more than zoning restrictions have hurt them. A central theme of the book is that property ownership concepts change over time. For instance, the public purchase of development rights to farmland is barely more than 25 years old. Land trust numbers have tripled in the last 20 years. These are bold experi- ments. While government regulations will continue to affect property and property values, the sharing of ownership interests will con- tinue to be a popular way to protect natural areas, working farm- land, and even some of the built environment. Tom Daniels is a contributing editor of Farmland Preservation Report and Professor of Planning at SUNY- Albany. His latest book is When. City and Country Collide: Managing Growth in the Metropoli- tan Fringe (Island Press, 1999).