APB agenda 101905 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

e� September 2005 farmland preservation report Page 7 Top localities, state programs or donations only, eastern states 1 Rank County Acres Preserved No. Farms Program Market Value (millions) 1 Fauquier (VA) 57,199 350 Va. Outdoors Fdn; local PDR 45.4 2 Addison (VT) 431200 165 Vermont Land Trust 105.9 3 Albemarle (VA) 41,707 219 Va. Outdoors Fdn 19.1 4 Kent (DE) 40,562 198 DE Ag Land Pres Fdn 128.6 5 Caroline (MD) 35,035 n/a MD Ag Land- Pres Fdn 104.3 6 Franklin (VT) 32,552 114 Vermont Land Trust 115.4 7 Queen Anne's (MD) 24,769 181 MD. Ag Land Pres Fdn, TDR 66 TOTALS: 240,525 584.7 million Notes: 1 This survey measures landowner interest in the absence of local leadership and administration comparable to those programs in the "Top 12" ranking conducted by FPR annually. Western states will appear in a later issue. Programs in Vermont and Delaware have no local administration. Counties in Virginia have local programs limited in scope and without support from a state program. Donations make up the majority of preserved acres in Virginia counties. Maryland counties locally administer the state program, but often do not have locally operated programs. Caroline and Queen Anne's have the top acreage counts among those counties. All acres reported are in farm use. Sources; Interviews with state or local administrators, Sept. 2005; USDA Census of Agriculture. Continued from page 6 and money are never in short supply, and acres are logged at a good clip even with the loss last year of veteran administrator Susan Craft to the state's top farmland preservation j ob. Program administrator Dan Kennedy said this year's county allocations are roughly $9 million. "We're hoping to keep up or increase the pace of acquisitions, but in some towns we're beginning to see the end game of preserva- tion," Kennedy said. "The next five years will be a transition, and we're starting to consider what this program will be about after the acquisitions are done." Kennedy said his office is already beginning to think about "how much money it will take to wrap things up." Carroll County returns to fifth place, the spot it held from 2000 to 2004 when it ascended to fourth, overtaking Sonoma County. Now it has been overtaken by Berks. "Well, we're all in the same block of land," said administrator Bill Powel of Berks' progress. "We'll have to roll up our sleeves and work harder." Taking a second look For the first time, FPR conducted a second survey to take into account counties with high acreage totals that don't have local programs. This survey (see table above), considers landowner response to the conservation option when it may not even be promoted at the local government level. Fauquier County tops the list with 55,252 acres through easement donation to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and 1,947 acres in a locally targeted PDR program. Fauquier last year began a local purchase of development rights program funded with a special taxing district at $1.5 million annually, but it is not countywide and is limited to an area with the county's majority of dairies. Elsewhere, equine operations predominate. The local program pays a $20,000 flat rate per development right based on the county's sliding scale zoning and local appraisals. A PDRcommittee is proposing an increase to $30,000, which is expected to be acted on next month. Two counties in Vermont have had a remarkable number of farmers donate or sell conservation easements. Addison and Franklin Counties have long led the state in number of acres protected through the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board's Farmland Preservation Program. It pro- vides grants to nonprofits, particularly to the Ver- mont Land Trust, to carry out and monitor its farmland easements.